MEASURES OF DISPERSION

OR VARIABILITY

1. The Range
2. The Standard Deviation
3. The Variance
To interpret the variability of data (how much homogeneous or heterogeneous the
data is)
Measures of Dispersion
or Variability
Let’s try this!

The following numbers were obtained by sampling a

population.
2, 4, 7, 12, 15
Find the range,
standard deviation,
and variance of the sample.
MEASURES OF RELATIVE POSITION

z-Scores or the standard scores

Percentiles
Quartiles
Measures of Relative Position
 Raul has taken two tests in his chemistry class. He scored 72 on the first test,
for which the mean of all scores was 65 and the standard deviation was 8. He
received a 60 on a second test, for which the mean of all scores was 45 and
the standard deviation was 12. In comparison to the other students, did Raul do
better on the first test or the second test?
 Solution:
 Find the z-score for each test.

 Raul scored 0.875 standard deviation above the mean on the first test and 1.25 standard
deviations above the mean on the second test.
 These z-scores indicate that, in comparison to his classmates, Raul scored better on the second test
than he did on the first test.
Measures of Relative Position
 In a recent year, the median monthly salary for a physical
therapist was Php74,480. If the 90th percentile for the monthly
salary of a physical therapist was Php105,900, find the percent
of physical therapists whose monthly salary was
a. more than Php74,480.
b. less than Php105,900.
c. between Php74,480 and Php105,900.

Solution:
 a. By definition, the median is the 50th percentile. Therefore, 50% of
the physical therapists earned more than Php 74,480 per month.
 b. Because Php105,900 is the 90th percentile, 90% of all physical
therapists made less than Php105,900.
 c. From parts a and b, 90% – 50% = 40% of the physical therapists
earned between Php74,480 and Php105,900.
 On a reading examination given to 900 students, Elaine’s score of 602 was higher
than the scores of 576 of the students who took the examination. What is the percentile
for Elaine’s score?

Solution:

Elaine’s score of 602 places her at the 64th percentile.

 The following table lists the calories per 100 milliliters of 25 popular sodas. Find
the quartiles for the data.

 Solution:
 Step 1: Rank the data as shown in the following table.
Step 2: The median of these 25 data values has a rank of
13. Thus the median is 43. The second quartile Q2
is the median of the data, so Q2 = 43.
Step 3: There are 12 data values less than the median and
12 data values greater than the median. The first
quartile is the median of the data values less than
the median. Thus Q1 is the mean of the data
values with ranks of 6 and 7.
The third quartile is the median of the data values greater than the median.
Thus Q3 is the mean of the data values with ranks of 19 and 20.