# Homework Help: Degrees of confidence

1. Sep 6, 2010

### Sirsh

Hi, I'ld like to know if anyone knows how to find the 'z' score inrelation to a percentage degree of confidence. The question is: Determine the z score that would give a result with a degree of confidence of 95%.

I know that it is, 1.9600. However, I would like to know how to figure this out mathematically.

Thanks,
Sirsh.

2. Sep 7, 2010

### gerben

It's based on the area under the standard normal distribution:
$$\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}} e^{-\frac{1}{2}z^2}$$

Your question "Determine the z score that would give a result with a degree of confidence of 95%." comes down to "what is the value of z such that the area under the standard normal distribution between -z and z is equal to 0.95?". And it turns out that:

$$\int_{-1.96}^{1.96} \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}} e^{-\frac{1}{2}z^2} dz \approx 0.95$$

3. Sep 11, 2010

### Sirsh

Thanks alot, gerben!

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