Reviewer: Measures of - Population: σ
- Sample: s
Variability (Dispersion) Steps to Compute Standard Deviation:
1. Find the mean of the data.
2. Subtract the mean from each data point
I. What is a Measure of Variability? (deviation).
A measure of variability (or dispersion) tells us 3. Square each deviation.
how spread out the data values are in a dataset. 4. Find the sum of squared deviations.
Unlike measures of central tendency (mean, 5. Divide by n (for population) or n - 1 (for sample).
median, mode), which describe the center, 6. Take the square root of the result.
measures of variability describe the spread or
distribution of data.
III. Example: Standard Deviation (Sample)
Given: 2, 4, 7, 12, 15
II. Key Measures of Variability 1. Mean = (2 + 4 + 7 + 12 + 15) / 5 = 8
2. Squared deviations: 36 + 16 + 1 + 16 + 49 = 118
1. Range 3. Variance = 118 / 4 = 29.5
Definition: The difference between the highest and 4. Standard deviation = √29.5 ≈ 5.43
lowest values.
Formula: Range = Highest value - Lowest value
Pros: Simple and quick to compute. IV. Real-Life Application: Battery Life Test
Cons: Affected by outliers and doesn’t consider all A group tested 8 D batteries from 3 companies.
data values. Which company produced the most consistent
batteries?
Example:
- Machine 1: 10.07 - 5.85 = 4.22 ohms
Data Summary:
- Machine 2: 8.03 - 7.95 = 0.08 ohms
Company | Mean (hrs) | Variance | SD (hrs)
2. Variance -----------------------|----------------|------------|---------
EverSoBright |7 | 12.34 | 1.33
Definition: The average squared deviation from the
Dependable |7 | 3.62 | 0.72
mean.
Third Company | 7 | 5.38 | 0.88
Types:
- Population Variance (σ²): σ² = Σ(x - μ)² / N
Conclusion: Dependable produced the most
- Sample Variance (s²): s² = Σ(x - x̄)² / (n - 1)
consistent batteries (lowest SD: 0.72 hrs).
Note: Variance is in squared units, not in the
original units of data.
3. Standard Deviation
Definition: Measures how spread out the numbers V. Summary
are from the mean.
It is the square root of the variance.
Symbols:
5. Given the data: 5, 7, 9, what is the range?
→ Range = 9 - 5 = 4
Measure Purpose Formula Notes
6. Why is the variance expressed in squared
Range Spread Max - Min Quick but units?
between not → Because each deviation from the mean is
max and reliable squared to eliminate negative values and
min emphasize larger differences.
Variance Avg. of Σ(x - μ)² / In squared 7. If a dataset has a mean of 10 and a data point
squared n units of 15, what is the deviation of that point?
deviations → Deviation = 15 - 10 = 5
Standard Spread √Variance Most 8. In computing the sample variance, why do we
Deviation around the commonly divide by (n - 1) instead of n?
mean used → To account for the fact that a sample
underestimates the population variability;
dividing by (n - 1) gives an unbiased estimate.
9. How do you compute standard deviation from
VI. Quiz Questions variance?
→ Take the square root of the variance:
1. What is the purpose of a measure of variability? Standard Deviation = √Variance
→ To describe the spread or dispersion of data
points in a dataset; it shows how much the data 10. Which is more affected by outliers: range or
values differ from the mean or from each other. standard deviation? Why?
→ Range, because it only depends on the
2. How do you compute the range of a dataset? minimum and maximum values.
→ Subtract the smallest value from the largest However, standard deviation is also affected,
value: but not as drastically because it accounts for all
Range = Highest value - Lowest value values.
3. What is the difference between sample
variance and population variance?
→ Sample variance divides by n - 1 (degrees of
freedom) to correct for bias in estimating a
population from a sample.
Population variance divides by n because it
includes the whole population.
4. What does a low standard deviation imply
about a dataset?
→ The data points are closely clustered around
the mean, indicating low variability.
