Sec 2.

5 – Measures of variation
How
spread
out the
data is
Standard deviation
Range The expected
The distance distance between
between the max. the mean and a
and min. values randomly chosen
value
 Standard
deviation
“s”
Shows the variability
First find the
in relation to the
“Sample Variance”
mean
(On formula sheet, but
know how to use the
calculator to obtain)
σ𝑛𝑖=1 𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥ҧ 2
𝑠2 =
𝑛−1
𝒔= 𝒔𝟐
σ 𝑥 2
σ 𝑥2 − ൗ𝑛 σ 𝑥 2 − 𝑛𝑥ҧ 2
= =
𝑛−1 𝑛−1
Example 20 40 25 35

σ 𝑥𝑖 20 + 40 + 25 + 35
First need the sample mean: 𝑥ҧ = = = 30
𝑛 4

σ 𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥ҧ 2
𝑠2 =
𝑛−1

20 − 30 2 + 40 − 30 2 + 25 − 30 2 + 35 − 30 2
= = 83.3′
3

A randomly selected value is expected

So: 𝑠 = 𝑠 2 = 9.1 to lie 9.1 units from the mean.
 Variation: Raw Data

Standard deviation

= 𝑆𝑇𝐷𝐸𝑉. 𝑆 𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑦
Step 1: Step 2:
Enter Type in
the Excel
𝑆 : Means that it is for a sample
data
command
= 𝑉𝐴𝑅. 𝑆 𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑦

Variance
STEP 1: Enter data STEP 2:
Type in the
EXCEL
Functions

STEP 2:
Press
ENTER
 Approximate the
Grouped Data values with the
class midpoints.

2 An “approximate
σ 𝑚𝑖 − 𝑥ҧ 𝑓𝑖
2
𝑠 = sample variance”
𝑛−1

σ 𝑚𝑖 𝑓𝑖 2
2
σ 𝑚𝑖 𝑓𝑖 −
= 𝑛
𝑛−1
Example
Boundaries fi mi mi fi mi2 fi
0–5 10 2.5 25 62.5
5 – 10 6 7.5 45 337.5
10 – 15 3 12.5 38 468.75
15 – 20 3 17.5 53 918.75

𝑛 = ෍ 𝑓𝑖 = 22 ෍ 𝑚𝑖 𝑓𝑖 = 160
෍ 𝑚𝑖2 𝑓𝑖 = 1787.5
 𝑛 = ෍ 𝑓𝑖 = 22
σ 𝑚𝑖 𝑓𝑖 2
σ 𝑚𝑖2 𝑓𝑖 −
𝑠2 = 𝑛
෍ 𝑚𝑖 𝑓𝑖 = 160
𝑛−1

1602 ෍ 𝑚𝑖2 𝑓𝑖 = 1787.5

1787.5 −
= 22
21

= 29.707 …
A randomly selected
value is expected to lie
within 5.45 units of the
So: 𝑠 = 𝑠 2 = 5.45 mean.