% percentil

English translation: 95th (5th) percentile

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Spanish term or phrase:	% percentil
English translation:	95th (5th) percentile

15:24 Jan 9, 2013

The asker opted for community grading. The question was closed on 2013-01-12 17:54:08 based on peer agreement (or, if there were too few peer comments, asker preference.)

Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Science - Mathematics & Statistics

Spanish term or phrase: % percentil

I'm having trouble understanding how percentile is used in Spanish and particularly in this context. This is a study of the ergonomic properties of a train and they're using people whose height ranks at the top and the bottom of the population to test the driver's cab to make sure that the train can be operated by everyone except maybe very very small people or very very large people. But they use things like 5% percentil and I'm confused by the fact that the 5% only refers to the female population and 95% to the male population; if it were a percentile wouldn't it be of the population as a whole? Anyway, here's what it says the first time it comes up (but it comes up a lot more times too):

Los percentiles de conductores empleados para realizar el presente informe son conforme al documento de referencia "Hanson, L., et al., Swedish anthropometrics for product and work place design, Applied Ergonomics (2008)", siendo estos:
o 95% población sueca masculina, correspondientes a un hombre de 1,92m. de altura.
o 5% población sueca femenina, correspondientes a una mujer de 1,56m. de altura.

S Ben Price KudoZ activity Questions: 1000 (6 open) (63 closed without grading) Answers: 447 Spain
Local time: 09:13

95th (5th) percentile

Explanation:
The first line means that only 5% of men are above 1.92m height; the second means that only 5% of women measure less than 1.56m. Thus the first is "the 95th percentile of Sweedish men (or males)".

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Note added at 1 hr (2013-01-09 17:00:15 GMT)
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Exactly, the top 5th percentile of men and the bottom 5th percentile of women. If both of these extremes fit in the cab then almost everybody would!

Selected response from:

Lafayette Eaton
Chile
Local time: 03:13

Grading comment

I found this to be a fairly standard value used in determining how big to make things: 5th percentile female and 95th percentile male.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +3

95th (5th) percentile

Lafayette Eaton

Answers

14 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

95th (5th) percentile

Lafayette Eaton
Chile
Local time: 03:13
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 28

Grading comment

I found this to be a fairly standard value used in determining how big to make things: 5th percentile female and 95th percentile male.

Notes to answerer

Asker: Is it top 5th percentile and bottom 5th percentile then?

Asker: Ok, found it now, they're called the 5th percentile female and 95th percentile male and seem to be the standard values used for determining how big to make things. Thanks for your help! Here's a reference if you're interested: http://www.allsteeloffice.com/SynergyDocuments/ErgonomicsAndDesignReferenceGuideWhitePaper.pdf

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