Measurement of Dispersion
Measurement of Dispersion
DISPERSION
COEFFICIENT OF VARIATION
• the standard deviation measures absolute and not relative
variability. it can only compare two samples that have the
same units of measure.
• a statistic that allows us to compare two different data sets
that have different units of measurement.
• this expresses the standard deviation as a percentage of the
mean.
•
• For samples:
• For populations:
••
Example :
• The average score of the student in one English class is 110, with a
standard deviation of 5; the average score of students in a history
class is 106, with a standard deviation of 4. Which class is more
variable in terms of score?
Solution: English class: = 4.55%
History class: = 3.77%
• Since the coefficient of variation for the English class is larger, the
scores here are more variable than the scores in the History class.
MEASURE OF KURTOSIS
• Even if the curves of distributions have the same coefficient of
skewness, these curves may still differ in the sharpness of their peaks.
This property of curves can be described using the measure of kurtosis.
• For instance, the symmetrical curves have three types:
- Normal or mesokurtic curves
- Leptokurtic curves, which are more peaked
- Platykurtic curves, which are flat- topped curves.
•• A distribution is said to be
o Mesokurtic if k= 3
o Leptokurtic if k> 3
o Platykurtic if k< 3
CLASS F X F∙X
LIMITS
90 – 98 6 94 564 -19 130 321 781 926