STANDARD DEVIATION

WHAT is dispersion ?
As we have studied about central tendency in previous classes we know
that central tendency alone is not sufficient to analyse the data. For
more meaningful analysis of the data, to is nessery to study dispersion
i.e, the spread of the data or the extent to which items derived from
central tendency.

The word, dispersion is used to denote the degree of heterogeneity in

the data. It is an important characteristics indicating the extent to which
observations vary amoung themselves. A measure of dispersion
describes the spread it scattering of individual values amoung the value.
The word dispersion can be interpreted in another sense also, when all
items of the data are not equal to central tendency, then the various
items differ from central tendency by certain amount. Dispersion gives,
on an average, by how much amount items differ from central
tendency.

A measure of statistical dispersion is a nonnegative real number that is

zero if all the data are the same and increases as the data become more
diverse.

Most measures of dispersion have the same units as the quantity being
measured. In other words, if the measurements are in metres or
seconds, so is the measure of dispersion.