MEASURES OF DISPERSION

By
V.DEEPAK
 The daily calorie requirement of a normal
adult is about 2500 calories. This clearly is
not universally true.
 There must be individual variations.
 If we examine the data of blood pressure
or heights or weights of a large group of
individuals, we will find that the values
vary from person to person.
 Even the values vary within the same
subject from time.
 There are several measures of variation
(dispersion).
 The following are widely known:
1.The Range
2.The Mean or Average Deviation
3.The Standard Deviation
 The Range
 The range is by far the simplest measure
of dispersion.
 It is defined as the difference between
highest and lowest values in a given
sample.
 Hence it is variation from highest to lowest
figures.
 For example, from the following record of
diastolic blood pressure of 10 individuals-
85,73,83,77,69,92,74,94,78,96
 It can be seen that the highest value was
96 and the lowest is 69.
 The range is expressed as 69 to 96 or by
the actual difference(27)
 If we have grouped data, the range is
taken as the difference between the
midpoints of the extreme categories
 The range is not of much practical
importance, because it indicates only the
extreme values between the two values
and nothing about the dispersion of values
between the two extreme values.
 The Mean Deviation
 It is the average of deviations from the arithmetic mean.
 It is given by the formula:

M.D.= ∑(x - ẍ) /ŋ

 x is the given value.

 ẍ is the arithmetic mean of given values.
 ŋ is the no. of values.
 Example; the diastolic blood pressure of ten
individuals was follows

85,73,83,77,69,92,74,94,78,96

 The mean deviation can be found by using the

formula.
Diastolic B.P.(x) Arithmetic Deviation from
Mean (ẍ) the Mean (x-ẍ)
83 81 2
75 81 -6
81 81 0
79 81 -2
71 81 -10
95 81 14
75 81 -6
77 81 -4
84 81 3
90 81 9
 Arithmetic mean=810/10
=81
 mean deviation =56/10
=5.6
 The Standard Deviation
 The standard deviation is the most
frequently used measures of deviation.
 In simple terms, it is defined as “Root-
Means-Square-Deviation.”
 It is denoted by Greek letter sigma σ or by
the initials S.D.
 The standard deviation is calculated by the basic
formula:

S.D= ∑(x-ẍ) /ŋ
 When the sample size is more than 30,the above
basic formula can be used without modification.
 For smaller samples, the above formula tends to
underestimate the standard deviation, and
therefore needs correction, which is done by
substituting the denominator (ŋ-1) for ŋ.
 The modified formula is

S.D.= ∑(x-ẍ) /(ŋ-1)

 The steps involved in calculating the

standard deviation are:
a) Take the deviation of each value from
arithmetic mean, (x-ẍ)
b) square each deviation, (x-ẍ)
c) Add squared deviations, ∑(x-ẍ)
d) divide result by no. of observations ŋ:
[(ŋ-1)in case the sample size is less]
e) Then take the square root, which gives the
standard deviation.
Eg:The diastolic blood pressures of 10 individuals
are 83,75,81,79,71,95,75,77,84,90.calculate
standard deviation.
 x (x-ẍ) (x-ẍ)

83 2 4
75 -6 36
81 0 -
79 -2 4
71 -10 100
95 14 196
75 6 36
77 4 16
84 3 9
90 9 81
ẍ=81,ŋ=10 Total=482
S.D.= ∑(x-ẍ) /(ŋ-1)

= 482/(10-1)

= 482/9

= 53.55 =7.31
 The meaning of standard deviation can only be
appreciated fully when we study it with
reference to what is described as normal curve.
 For the present ,we may contend with the basic
significance of standard deviation-that it is an
abstract number; that it gives us an idea of the
spread of dispersion; that the larger the
standard deviation ,the greater the dispersion of
values about the mean.