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Measures of Dispersion

Measures of dispersion quantify how spread out a data set is. Variance and standard deviation are common measures of dispersion. Variance is calculated by taking the average of the squared differences from the mean. Standard deviation is the square root of the variance. These measures are unaffected if a constant is added to or multiplied across all data points. Variance for grouped data uses frequencies and class marks in its calculation.

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100 views3 pages

Measures of Dispersion

Measures of dispersion quantify how spread out a data set is. Variance and standard deviation are common measures of dispersion. Variance is calculated by taking the average of the squared differences from the mean. Standard deviation is the square root of the variance. These measures are unaffected if a constant is added to or multiplied across all data points. Variance for grouped data uses frequencies and class marks in its calculation.

Uploaded by

Lokendra Kumar Tiwari
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Measures of Dispersion

Measures of dispersion measure how spread out a set of data is.


Variance and Standard Deviation
The formulae for the variance and standard deviation are given below. means the
mean of the data.
Variance =2 = (xr - )2
n
The standard deviation, , is the square root of the variance.
What the formula means:
(1) xr - means take each value in turn and subtract the mean from each value.
(2) (xr - )2 means square each of the results obtained from step (1). This is to get rid of
any minus signs.
(3) (xr - )2 means add up all of the results obtained from step (2).
(4) Divide step (3) by n, which is the number of numbers
(5) For the standard deviation, square root the answer to step (4).
Example
Find the variance and standard deviation of the following numbers: 1, 3, 5, 5, 6, 7, 9,
10 .
The mean = 46/ 8 = 5.75
(Step 1): (1 - 5.75), (3 - 5.75), (5 - 5.75), (5 - 5.75), (6 - 5.75), (7 - 5.75), (9 - 5.75), (10 5.75)
= -4.75, -2.75, -0.75, -0.75, 0.25, 1.25, 3.25, 4.25
(Step 2): 22.563, 7.563, 0.563, 0.563, 0.063, 1.563, 10.563, 18.063
(Step 3): 22.563 + 7.563 + 0.563 + 0.563 + 0.063 + 1.563 + 10.563 + 18.063
= 61.504
(Step 4): n = 8, therefore variance = 61.504/ 8 = 7.69 (3sf)
(Step 5): standard deviation = 2.77 (3sf)
Adding or Multiplying Data by a Constant
If a constant, k, is added to each number in a set of data, the mean will be increased by
k and the standard deviation will be unaltered (since the spread of the data will be
unchanged).

If the data is multiplied by the constant k, the mean and standard deviation will both be
multiplied by k.
Grouped Data
There are many ways of writing the formula for the standard deviation. The one above is
for a basic list of numbers. The formula for the variance when the data is grouped is as
follows. The standard deviation can be found by taking the square root of this value.
image:
http://revisionworld.com/sites/revisionworld.com/files/imce/measures_dispersion.gif

Example
The table shows marks (out of 10) obtained by 20 people in a test
Mark (x)Frequency (f)
1
0
2
1
3
1
4
3
5
2
6
5
7
5
8
2
9
0
10
1
Work out the variance of this data.
In such questions, it is often easiest to set your working out in a table:
fx
0
2
3
12
10
30
35
16
0

fx2
0
4
9
48
50
180
245
128
0

10
100
f = 20
fx = 118
Sfx2 = 764
variance = fx2 - (

fx )2
f
( f )2
= 764 - (118)2
20
( 20 )2
= 38.2 - 34.81 = 3.39
- See more at: http://www.mathsrevision.net/advanced-level-mathsrevision/statistics/measures-dispersion#sthash.uFMQXApn.dpuf
Read more at http://www.mathsrevision.net/advanced-level-mathsrevision/statistics/measures-dispersion#DtpxgaAtEtyUPirG.99

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