Engineers want to design seats in commercial aircraft so that they are wide enough to fit 99% of all males. (accommodating 100% of males would require very wide seats that would be much too expensive.) men have hip breadths that are normally distributed with a mean of 14.5 in. and a standard deviation of 0.9 in. find upper p 99. that is, find the hip breadth for men that separates the smallest 99% from the largest 1%.

16.59 inches

Step-by-step explanation:

Mean value = u = 14.5 inches

Standard deviation = = 0.9 in

We need to find the 99th percentile of the given distribution. This can be done by first finding the z value associated with 99th percentile and then using that value to calculate the exact value of hip breadth that lies at 99th percentile

From the z-table, the 99th percentile value is at a z-value of:

z = 2.326

This means 99% of the z-scores are below this value. Now we need to find the equivalent hip breadth for this z-score

The formula to calculate the z score is:

where, x is the hip breadth which is equivalent to this z-score.

Substituting the values we have:

Rounded to 2 decimal places, engineers should design the seats which can fit the hip breadth of upto 16.59 inches to accommodate the 99% of all males.

because linear equations are a lot simpler than quadratics equations, and linear equations formula is a lot easier to memorize. that's why i think they're harder.