Mathematical constants | Estimation theory | Normal distribution
97.5th percentile point
In probability and statistics, the 97.5th percentile point of the standard normal distribution is a number commonly used for statistical calculations. The approximate value of this number is 1.96, meaning that 95% of the area under a normal curve lies within approximately 1.96 standard deviations of the mean. Because of the central limit theorem, this number is used in the construction of approximate 95% confidence intervals. Its ubiquity is due to the arbitrary but common convention of using confidence intervals with 95% probability in science and frequentist statistics, though other probabilities (90%, 99%, etc.) are sometimes used. This convention seems particularly common in medical statistics, but is also common in other areas of application, such as earth sciences, social sciences and business research. There is no single accepted name for this number; it is also commonly referred to as the "standard normal deviate", "normal score" or "Z score" for the 97.5 percentile point, the .975 point, or just its approximate value, 1.96. If X has a standard normal distribution, i.e. X ~ N(0,1), and as the normal distribution is symmetric, One notation for this number is z.975. From the probability density function of the standard normal distribution, the exact value of z.975 is determined by (Wikipedia).
