IB Math SL 6.

4 Variance and Standard Deviation Name:______________________________

Cumulative Frequency
Cumulative frequency is used to determine the number of observations that lie above (or below) a particular value in
a data set. ... The cumulative frequency is calculated by adding each frequency from a frequency distribution table to the
sum of its predecessors.

Standard Deviation

Now find the standard deviation of the following data:

Interpret the standard deviation in complete sentences.
You will conduct an investigation to collect data to determine how far students can walk blindfolded down the length of a
hallway before they deviate from a straight walking path.
One student will walk slowly down the hallway with their eyes closed with arms slightly extended in front for safety. The
other students in the group will accompany the walker and provide an alert when nearing a wall or heading out of bounds.
Write down the distance walked by each member in the group, in inches. Copy it on the whiteboard to compile data for
the class.
1. Write the distance that you and your groupmates travelled down the hallway before going out of bounds.

1. 2. 3. 4.

2. Use this table for the full class data set

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.
21. 22. 23. 24. 25.
3. Draw a bar graph of the class data, find the mean, median and quartiles.

4. a) What is the mean value? ___________ Median value? __________

Are these two values approximately the same and explain why? Yes or No (circle one). Explain why.

5. Find the variance and standard deviation of your data. Explain the significance of the standard deviation.

6. Divide your data into suitable intervals and draw a cumulative frequency table and cumulative frequency graph.

Find the median, Q1 and Q3 from the graph.