An 1868 paper by German physician Carl Wunderlich reported, based on over a mili

Question

An 1868 paper by German physician Carl Wunderlich reported, based on over a milion body temperature readings, that healthy adult body temperatures are approximately Normal with mean 98.6 degres Farenheit and standard deviation 0.6 degree Farenheit. This is still the most widely quoted result for human temperature.

1) According to this study, what is the range of body temperatures that can be found in 95% of healthy adults? (We are looking for the middle 95% of the adult population)

2) A more recent study suggests that the healthy adult body temperatures are better by an N (98.2, 0.7)distribution. Based on this later study, what is range of values representing the 95% most common body temperature in healthy adults? Compare this range with the one you obtained in (1)

Explanation / Answer

Per 68-95-99.7 rule, 68% observations falls under 1 standard deviation of the mean, 95% lies under 2 sd of mean and 99.7% lies under 3 sd of mean.

1. The range of body temperature will be mean plus minus 2SD= 98.6 plus minus 2*0.6=98.6 plus minus 1.2=97.4 to 99.8 Farenheit.

2. The range will be 98.2 plus minus 2*0.7=96.8 to 99.6 Fahrenheit

This range is bigger than range computed in 1.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse A
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.