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Standard Deviation and Variance

The document explains the concepts of Standard Deviation and Variance, defining Standard Deviation as a measure of how spread-out numbers are, represented by the symbol σ. It provides a step-by-step method to calculate Variance as the average of squared differences from the Mean, and highlights the difference in calculation when dealing with a Population versus a Sample. The document also emphasizes the usefulness of Standard Deviation in determining what is considered normal in a dataset.

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McAnthony Olisah
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2 views

Standard Deviation and Variance

The document explains the concepts of Standard Deviation and Variance, defining Standard Deviation as a measure of how spread-out numbers are, represented by the symbol σ. It provides a step-by-step method to calculate Variance as the average of squared differences from the Mean, and highlights the difference in calculation when dealing with a Population versus a Sample. The document also emphasizes the usefulness of Standard Deviation in determining what is considered normal in a dataset.

Uploaded by

McAnthony Olisah
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Standard Deviation and Variance

Deviation means how far from the normal


Standard Deviation
The Standard Deviation is a measure of how spread-out numbers are.
Its symbol is σ (the Greek letter sigma)
The formula is easy: it is the square root of the Variance. So now you ask, "What is the
Variance?"
Variance
The Variance is defined as:
The average of the squared differences from the Mean.
To calculate the variance, follow these steps:
 Calculate the Mean (the simple average of the numbers)
 Then for each number: subtract the Mean and square the result (the squared
difference).
 Then calculate the average of those squared differences. (Why Square?)
Example
You and your friends have just measured the heights of your dogs (in millimeters):

The heights (at the shoulders) are: 600 mm, 470 mm, 170 mm, 430 mm and 300 mm.
Find out the Mean, the Variance, and the Standard Deviation.
Your first step is to find the Mean:
Answer:
Mea 600 + 470 + 170 +
=
n 430 + 3005
= 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:

σ 2062 + 762 + (−224)2 +


Variance

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 (147 mm) 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?
Using

We can expect about 68% of values to be within plus-or-minus 1 standard deviation.


But ... there is a small change with Sample Data
Our example has been for a Population (the 5 dogs are the only dogs we are interested
in).
But if the data is a Sample (a selection taken from a bigger Population), then the
calculation changes!
When we have "N" data values that are:
 The Population: divide by N when calculating Variance (like we did)
 A Sample: divide by N-1 when calculating Variance
All other calculations stay the same, including how we calculated the mean.
Example: if our 5 dogs are just a sample of a bigger population of dogs, we divide by 4
instead of 5 like this:
Sample Variance = 108,520 / 4 = 27,130
Sample Standard Deviation = √27,130 = 165 (to the nearest mm)
Think of it as a "correction" when our data is only a sample.
Formulas
Here are the two formulas, explained at Standard Deviation Formulas if you want to know
more:
The "Population Standard
Deviation":

The "Sample Standard


Deviation":
Looks complicated, but the important change is to
divide by N-1 (instead of N) when calculating a Sample Standard Deviation.
*Footnote: Why square the differences?
If we just add up the differences from the mean ... the negatives cancel the positives:

4+4−4−
44 = 0

So that won't work. How about we use absolute values?

|4| + |4| + |−4| + |−4|4 = 4 + 4 + 4 +


44 = 4

That looks good (and is the Mean Deviation), but what about this case:

|7| + |1| + |−6| + |−2|4 = 7 + 1 + 6 +


24 = 4

Oh No! It also gives a value of 4, Even though the differences are more spread out.
So let us try squaring each difference (and taking the square root at the end):

√(42 + 42 + (-4)2 + (-
4)24) = √(644) = 4
√(72 + 12 + (-6)2 + (-
2)24) = √(904) = 4.74...

That is nice! The Standard Deviation is bigger when the differences are more spread
out ... just what we want.
In fact this method is a similar idea to distance between points, just applied in a different
way.
And it is easier to use algebra on squares and square roots than absolute values, which
makes the standard deviation easy to use in other areas of mathematics.

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