In statistics, the 68-95-99.7 rule — or three-sigma rule, or empirical rule — states that for a normal distribution, nearly all values lie within 3 standard deviations of the mean.
About 68.27% of the values lie within 1 standard deviation of the mean. Similarly, about 95.45% of the values lie within 2 standard deviations of the mean. Nearly all (99.73%) of the values lie within 3 standard deviations of the mean.
In mathematical notation, these facts can be expressed as follows, where x is an observation from a normally distributed random variable, μ is the mean of the distribution, and σ is its standard deviation:
Read more about 68-95-99.7 Rule: Derivation, Uses, Higher Deviations
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“Nothing requires a greater effort of thought than arguments to justify the rule of non-thought.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)