Question 6.19

6.19 Safe flying weight.

In response to the increasing weight of airline passengers, the Federal Aviation Administration told airlines to assume that passengers average 190 pounds in the summer, including clothing and carry-on baggage. But passengers vary: the FAA gave a mean but not a standard deviation. A reasonable standard deviation is 35 pounds. Weights are not Normally distributed, especially when the population includes both men and women, but they are not very non-Normal. A commuter plane carries 19 passengers. What is the approximate probability that the total weight of the passengers exceeds 4000 pounds?

(Hint: To apply the central limit theorem, restate the problem in terms of the mean weight.)

6.19

0.0052.