Scribd
Upload
12 views5 pages

Lesson-5

Measures of dispersion, including range, standard deviation, and variance, help to understand the variability of data beyond just averages. The range indicates the difference between the highest and lowest values, while standard deviation measures how spread out the numbers are around the mean. The empirical rule provides insights into the distribution of values in a normal distribution, indicating that a significant percentage of scores fall within certain standard deviations from the mean.

Uploaded by

Joelyn Capa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
12 views5 pages

Lesson-5

Measures of dispersion, including range, standard deviation, and variance, help to understand the variability of data beyond just averages. The range indicates the difference between the highest and lowest values, while standard deviation measures how spread out the numbers are around the mean. The empirical rule provides insights into the distribution of values in a normal distribution, indicating that a significant percentage of scores fall within certain standard deviations from the mean.

Uploaded by

Joelyn Capa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

Lesson 5: Measures of Dispersion

Statistical dispersion means the extent to which numerical data is likely to vary about an average value.
In other words, dispersion helps to understand the distribution of the data.
The measures of dispersion help to interpret the variability of data i.e. to know how much homogenous
or heterogeneous the data is. In simple terms, it shows how squeezed or scattered the variable is.

Why study measures of dispersion?


Some characteristics of a set of data may not be evident from an examination of averages. For instance,
consider the test scores for two students:

Maria Grace
85 80
84 82
84 93
86 92
85 82
86 81
AV- 85 85

If we will get the average grade or the mean , both students have an average grade of 85. However,
when we look at the variation or the distribution of their grades, Maria’s grades are consistent ( closer), while
Grace’s grades are inconsistent some are in 80’s and some in 90’s. This example shows that average values do
not reflect the spread or dispersion of data. To measure the spread or dispersion of data, we must study the
statistical values known as range and the standard deviation.

1. RANGE
The Range is the difference between the lowest and highest values.

Example: In {4, 6, 9, 3, 7} the lowest value is 3, and the highest is 9.


So the range is 9 − 3 = 6.

The range can sometimes be misleading when there are extremely high or low values.

Example: In {8, 11, 5, 9, 7, 6, 3616}:


the lowest value is 5, and the highest is 3616,

So the range is 3616 − 5 = 3611.


The single value of 3616 makes the range large, but most values are around 10.
2. Standard Deviation
The Standard Deviation is a measure of how spread out numbers is.
The standard deviation is the average amount of variability in your dataset. It tells you, on average, how far
each value lies from the mean.
A high standard deviation means that values are generally far from the mean, while a low standard deviation
indicates that values are clustered close to the mean
Its symbol is σ (the greek letter sigma)
Standard deviation is a useful measure of spread for normal distributions.

The standard deviation reflects the dispersion of the distribution. The curve with the lowest standard deviation has a
high peak and a small spread, while the curve with the highest standard deviation is more flat and widespread.

The empirical rule


The standard deviation and the mean together can tell you where most of the values in your frequency
distribution lie if they follow a normal distribution.
The empirical rule, or the 68-95-99.7 rule, tells you where your values lie:
Around 68% of scores are within 1 standard deviation of the mean,
Around 95% of scores are within 2 standard deviations of the mean,
Around 99.7% of scores are within 3 standard deviations of the mean.
Example: Standard deviation in a normal distribution. You administer a memory recall test to a group of
students. The data follows a normal distribution with a mean score of 50 and a standard deviation of 10.

Following the empirical rule:


Around 68% of scores are between 40 and 60.
Around 95% of scores are between 30 and 70.
Around 99.7% of scores are between 20 and 80.
3. Variance
The Variance is defined as the average of the squared differences from the Mean.

To calculate the variance follow these steps:

• Work out the Mean (the simple average of the numbers)


• Then for each number: subtract the Mean and square the result (the squared difference).
• Then work out the average of those squared differences.

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 Mean, the Variance, and the Standard Deviation.

Your first step is to find the Mean:

Answer:

Mean = 600 + 470 + 170 + 430 + 300

= 19705

= 394

so the mean (average) height is 394 mm. Let's plot this on the chart:

Now we calculate each dog's difference from the Mean:


To calculate the Variance, take each difference, square it, and then average the result:

Variance
Variance = (600-394)2 + (470-394)2 +(170-394)2 +(430-394)2+(300-394)2

σ2 = 2062 + 762 + (−224)2 + 362 + (−94)25

= 42436 + 5776 + 50176 + 1296 + 88365

= 1085205

= 21704

So the Variance is 21,704

And the Standard Deviation is just the square root of Variance, so:

Standard Deviation

σ = √21704

= 147.32...

= 147 (to the nearest mm)

And the good thing about the Standard Deviation is that it is useful. Now we can show which heights are
within one Standard Deviation (147mm) of the Mean:

So, using the Standard Deviation we have a "standard" way of knowing what is normal, and what is
extra large or extra small.
Rottweilers are tall dogs. And Dachshunds are a bit short, right?

You might also like