Exploring Mathematics in the Modern World

Topic 3: Measures of Dispersion

Learning Objectives

Upon the completion of this topic, you are expected to:

a. define range, standard deviation, and variance;
b. calculate range, standard deviation, and variance for ungrouped data; and
c. describe the given set of data using the computed measures of dispersion.

Presentation of Content

I. Range
The range is the simplest measure of variability. It is the difference between
the largest value and the smallest value. The formula for the range is:
𝑅 =𝐻−𝐿
Where:
𝑅 = 𝑅𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒
𝐻 = 𝐻𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒
𝐿 = 𝐿𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒

Test scores of 10, 8, 9, 7, 5, and 3, will give us a range of 7 from 10 – 3.

Characteristics of Range
It is easy to compute and understand. It emphasizes the extreme values.
However, it is the most unstable measure because its values easily change or
fluctuates with the change in the extreme values.

Uses of Range
The range is used to report the movement of stock process over a period of time
and the weather reports typically state the high and low temperature readings
for a 24– hour period.

Example 1:
The following are the daily wages of 8 factory workers of two garment
factories. Factory A and factory B. Find the range of salaries in peso (Php).
Factory A: 400, 450, 520, 380, 482, 495, 575, 450.
Factory B: 450, 400, 450, 480, 450, 450, 400, 672

Solution:
Finding the range of wages: Range = Highest wage – Lowest wage
𝑅𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝐴 = 575 − 380 = 195
𝑅𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝐵 = 672 − 350 = 322

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Comparing the two wages, you will note that wages of workers of factory B
have a higher range than wages of workers of factory A. These ranges tell us
that the wages of workers of factory B are more scattered than the wages of
workers of factory A.
The range tells us that it is not a stable measure of variability because its value
can fluctuate greatly even with a change in just a single value, either the
highest or lowest.

Example 2:
Find the range in the sets A, B, and C.
Set A : 81, 83, 87, 90, 94
Set B : 84, 86, 87, 88, 90
Set C : 85, 86, 87, 88, 89

Solution:
𝑆𝑒𝑡 𝐴: 𝑅𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 = 𝐻𝑉 − 𝐿𝑉 = 94 − 81 = 13

𝑆𝑒𝑡 𝐵: 𝑅𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 = 𝐻𝑉 − 𝐿𝑉 = 90 − 84 = 6

𝑆𝑒𝑡 𝐶: 𝑅𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 = 𝐻𝑉 − 𝐿𝑉 = 89 − 85 = 4

Based on the computed range for sets A, B, C, it can be concluded that A has
greater variability as compared top B and C.

III. Variance
The variance of a set of data is denoted by the symbol s2. It determines how
spread out the data is. To find the variance (s2), we use the formula:

2
∑(𝑥 − 𝑥̅ )2
𝑠 =
𝑛−1

Where:
𝑛 = 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎
𝑥 = 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑎𝑤 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒
𝑥̅ = 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎

Variance Computation for Ungrouped Data

Calculate the variance follow these steps:
1. Work out the mean (the simple average of the numbers)
2. For each number, subtract the mean and square the result (the squared
difference).
3. Work out the average of those squared differences.

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Example:
You and your friends have just measured the heights of your dogs (in
millimeters). The heights (at the shoulders) are: 600mm, 470mm, 170mm,
430mm, and 300mm. Find out the value of the variance.

Solution:
Step 1. Work out the mean (the simple average of the numbers)

600+470+170+430+300 1,970
Mean = = = 394
5 5

Step 2. For each number, subtract the mean and square the result
(the squared difference) and work out the average of those squared
differences.

2062 + 762 + (−224)2 + 362 + (−94)2

𝑠2 =
5−1
42,436 + 5,776 + 1,296 + 8,836
𝑠2 =
4
108,520
𝑠2 =
4
𝑠 2 = 27,130
So the value of the variance is 27,130.

III. Standard Deviation

While the range is about how much your data covers, standard deviation has
to do more with how much difference there is between the scores. It is defined
as a number representing how far from the mean each score is.
Simply, the standard deviation is the square root of the variance.

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Characteristics of Standard Deviation

Standard deviation is a number used to tell how measurements for a group are
spread out from the mean or expected value.
A low standard deviation means that most of the numbers are very close to the
average. A high standard deviation means that the numbers are spread out.

Standard Deviation Computation for Ungrouped Data

To find the standard deviation, follow the steps below.
1. Calculate the mean.
2. Calculate the deviations, which are the scores minus the average.
3. Square the deviations.
4. Sum up the squared deviations.
5. Divide the sum of the squared deviations by the number of scores in
your data set minus 1.
6. Take the square root of the result.

Formula:
∑(𝑥 − 𝑥̅ )2
𝑠= √
𝑛−1
Where:
𝑠 = 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑥 = 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒
𝑥̅ = 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛
𝑛 = 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑠

Example 1
Sam has 20 rose bushes, but only counted the flowers on 6 of them! The
"population" is all 20 rose bushes and the "sample" is the 6 bushes that Sam
counted the flowers of. Let us say Sam's flower counts are: 9, 2, 5, 4, 12, and
7, find the value of the standard deviation.

Solution
Step 1. Work out the mean.
Using sampled values 9, 2, 5, 4, 12, 7
The mean is (9 + 2 + 5 + 4 + 12 + 7) / 6 = 39/6 = 6.5
So, 𝑥̅ = 6.5

Step 2. Then for each number, subtract the mean and square the result.
(9 − 6.5)2 = (2.5)2 𝑜𝑟 6.25
(2 − 6.5)2 = (−4.5)2 𝑜𝑟 20.25
(5 − 6.5)2 = (−1.5)2 𝑜𝑟 2.25
(4 − 6.5)2 = (−2.5)2 𝑜𝑟 6.25
(12 − 6.5)22 = (5.5)2 𝑜𝑟 30.25
(7 − 6.5)2 = (0.5)2 𝑜𝑟 0.25

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Step 3. Then work out the mean of those squared differences.

𝑆𝑢𝑚 = 6.25 + 20.25 + 2.25 + 6.25 + 30.25 + 0.25 = 𝟔𝟓. 𝟓

65.5 65.5
= 𝑜𝑟 13.1
6−1 5
This value is called the sample variance.

Step 5. Take the square root of that.

𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝐷𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = √13.1 = 3.62

Application

Directions: Find the range, variance, and standard deviation of the following
quantitative frequency distributions.

The following data represent the difference in scores between the winning and
losing teams in a sample of 15 college football bowl games from 20018-2019.

12 15 16 11 13
24 15 15 12 15
12 9 12 9 16
25 8 11 8 17
12 10 10 9 18

Assessment

Directions: Read and answer the following questions carefully. Write the letter
that corresponds to your answer on the space provided. After answering the
problems, check whether your answers are correct on the given key to
corrections.
______1. Ten friends scored the following marks in their end-of-year math
exam: 23%, 37%, 45%, 49%, 56%, 63%, 63%, 70%, 72% and 82%.
What was the standard deviation of their marks?
A. 15.1% C. 15.5%
B. 16.9% D. 18.6%

______2. What is the standard deviation of the first 10 natural numbers (1 to

10)?
A. 2.45 C. 3.16
B. 2.87 D. 8.25

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