The standard normal variable satisfies \(Z\sim N(0,1)\), with \(E(Z)=0\), \(\operatorname{Var}(Z)=1\) and \(\operatorname{SD}(Z)=1\).
Standardising a normal variable
If \(X\sim N(\mu,\sigma^2)\), then the increasing linear transformation \(Z=\dfrac{X-\mu}{\sigma}\) gives \(Z\sim N(0,1)\). It preserves corresponding cumulative areas.
\[P(X<x)=P\left(Z<\frac{x-\mu}{\sigma}\right)\]
In particular, \(\mu-\sigma\), \(\mu\) and \(\mu+\sigma\) correspond respectively to \(-1\), \(0\) and \(1\). Standardisation is useful when a probability condition is used to determine an unknown mean or variance.
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