I think I can! An important measure of the performance of a locomotive is its “adhesion,” which is the locomotive’s pulling force as a multiple of its weight.

The adhesion of one 4400-horsepower diesel locomotive varies in actual use according to a Normal distribution with mean m = 0.37 and standard deviation s = 0.04.

(a) For a certain small train’s daily route, the locomotive needs to have an adhesion of at least 0.30 for the train to arrive at its destination on time. On what proportion of days will this happen? Show your method.

(b) An adhesion greater than 0.50 for the locomotive will result in a problem because the train will arrive too early at a switch point along the route. On what proportion of days will this happen? Show your method.

(c) Compare your answers to parts

(a) and (b). Does it make sense to try to make one of these values larger than the other? Why or why not?