Measures of

Dispersion
Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to:
1. Determine the range, variance and standard deviation of a given
set of data.
2. Solve problem involving variability.

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Mathematics in the Modern World

Two sections of 10 students each in class X in a certain school were
given a common test in Mathematics (40 maximum marks). The scores
of the students are given below :
 Section A : 6 9 11 13 15 21 23 28 29 35
 Section B: 15 16 16 17 18 19 20 21 23 25

The average score in section A is 19.

The average score in section B is 19.

Mathematics in the Modern World

Diagram

Mathematics in the Modern World

Measures of Dispersion
 Measures of dispersion are descriptive statistics that describe
how similar a set of scores are to each other
 The more similar the scores are to each other, the lower the
measure of dispersion will be
 The less similar the scores are to each other, the higher the
measure of dispersion will be
 In general, the more spread out a distribution is, the larger
the measure of dispersion will be

Mathematics in the Modern World

Measures of Dispersion
Which of the distributions of scores has the larger dispersion?

125 125
100 100
75 75
50 50
25 25
0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

• The distribution A has more dispersion because the scores are

more spread out
• That is, they are less similar to each other
Mathematics in the Modern World
Measures of Dispersion
 There are three main measures of dispersion:
 The range
 The interquartile range (IQR)
 Variance / standard deviation

Mathematics in the Modern World

Range
 Of all the measures of variability, the range is the easiest to determine.
Is commonly used as a preliminary indicator of variation.
However, because it takes into account only the scores that lie at
the two extremes, the highest and lowest scores, it is of limited
use. It is rather a crude measure of variability.

Range = Highest score – Lowest score

Mathematics in the Modern World

Example 1:
Example 1:
Example 2:
Characteristics of Range
1. It gives a quick approximation of the variability of the data, but is
not very sophisticated.
2. It is limited, if extremes are not representative of the sample, but
are included among the scores, the range will be unrepresentative of
the sample, as well.
3. It is used when the mode is the preferred measure of central
tendency (i.e., when you have a nominal data)
4. It is the simplest measure of variability.
5. It is not very informative, because it is based only on the most
extreme scores.
Interquartile Range
 The interquartile range (IQR) is defined as the difference of the
first and third quartiles divided by two
 The first quartile is the 25th percentile
 The third quartile is the 75th percentile

 IQR = Q3 - Q1

Mathematics in the Modern World

When to Use IQR
 The IQR is often used with skewed data as it is insensitive to the
extreme scores

Mathematics in the Modern World

Variance
 Average of squared deviations of values from the mean

Population variance: Sample Variance:

N 2 N 2
2
σ (X
i=1 i − μ) 2
σ (X
i=1 i − μ)
σ = s =
N N−1

Where: μ = population mean

N = population size
Xi = ith value of the variable X
Mathematics in the Modern World
WHAT DOES THE VARIANCE FORMULA
MEAN?
 First, it says to subtract the mean from each of the scores
 This difference is called a deviate or a deviation score
 The deviate tells us how far a given score is from the
typical, or average, score
 Thus, the deviate is a measure of dispersion for a given
score

Mathematics in the Modern World

WHAT DOES THE VARIANCE FORMULA
MEAN?
 One of the definitions of the mean was that it always made the sum
of the scores minus the mean equal to 0
 Thus, the average of the deviates must be 0 since the sum of the
deviates must equal 0
 To avoid this problem, statisticians square the deviate score prior
to averaging them
 Squaring the deviate score makes all the squared scores positive

Mathematics in the Modern World

WHAT DOES THE VARIANCE FORMULA
MEAN?
 Variance is the mean of the squared deviation scores
 The larger the variance is, the more the scores deviate, on average,
away from the mean
 The smaller the variance is, the less the scores deviate, on average,
from the mean

Mathematics in the Modern World

Standard Deviation
 Most commonly used measure of variation
 Shows variation about the mean
 Is the square root of the variance
 Has the same units as the original data

Sample standard deviation: Population Standard Deviation

σni=1(Xi − X)2 σN (X
i=1 i − μ)2
S= σ=
n−1 N

Mathematics in the Modern World

 Standard Deviation
• When the deviate scores are squared in variance, their unit of
measure is squared as well
E.g. If people’s weights are measured in pounds, then the variance of
the weights would be expressed in pounds2 (or squared pounds)

• Since squared units of measure are often awkward to deal with, the
square root of variance is often used instead

Mathematics in the Modern World

Mathematics in the Modern World
Mathematics in the Modern World
Mathematics in the Modern World
Example : Aby, Bebz, Celia, Dolly and Earnest are all in the same Physics
class. Their scores for the first two exams in the class are listed in the Table

Exam 1 Exam 2
Aby 35 30
Bertz 41 26
Celia 23 32
Dolly 26 26
Earnest 38 28
Mean 35 30
Standard 3 2
Deviation

Mathematics in the Modern World

 The first exam has a mean of 35 and a standard deviation of 3.
The second exam has a mean of 30 and a standard deviation of 2.

1. Who improved on the second exam?

2. Who improved the most on the second exam?
3. Who performed poorest on the first exam?
4. Who performed similarly on both exams?

Mathematics in the Modern World

1. Celia improved on the second
exam.
2. Celia improved most in the
second exam.
3. Celia performed poorest on the
first exam.
4. Aby performed similarly on
both exams.

Mathematics in the Modern World