Here are the essential concepts you must grasp in order to answer the question correctly.
Normal Distribution
Normal distribution is a probability distribution that is symmetric about the mean, showing that data near the mean are more frequent in occurrence than data far from the mean. It is characterized by its bell-shaped curve, defined by its mean and standard deviation. In this context, the original and shifted distributions of the compound amounts are both normal distributions, which allows for the calculation of probabilities related to the selection of vials.
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Mean and Standard Deviation
The mean is the average of a set of values, representing the central point of a distribution, while the standard deviation measures the amount of variation or dispersion from the mean. In this scenario, the mean of the shifted distribution is 9.96 milligrams, and the standard deviation is 0.05 milligrams, which helps determine the range of acceptable values for the compound added to the vials.
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Probability and Z-scores
Probability quantifies the likelihood of an event occurring, often calculated using Z-scores in the context of normal distributions. A Z-score indicates how many standard deviations an element is from the mean. To find the probability that a selected vial falls within the acceptable range, one would calculate the Z-scores for the limits of that range and use the standard normal distribution to find the corresponding probabilities.
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