Measures of dispersion/Variation

SYED ARSHAD ULLAH

LECTURER CMT-BKMC

Data adopted and modified from

Mr. Bashir Ullah (Demonstrator IPMS-KMU) Lecture
Objectives

• By the end of this lecture, we should be

able to:
1. Compute & list uses for measures of
dispersion: range, variance,
standard deviation.
2. Compute mean & standard
deviation for grouped data.
 Measures of Dispersion
• A single value which measure that how

the individual observations of a data set

are scattered/dispersed around the
central value, is called measure of
dispersion.

• A measure of dispersion can be

expressed in an absolute value or
relative value.
 Commonly used
measures of Dispersion

Measure of
Dispersion

Standard
Range Variance Deviation
 1.RANGE
• The range is the simplest of the three
measures.
• The range is the highest value minus
the lowest value of a data set.
• The symbol R is used for the range.
• Mathematically, range is defined as:

Range = Xm – X0
 Example

• The following data indicate the amount

of fill (in ml) of 5 different bottle by a
soft drink company.
• The data is 12.5, 12.3, 12, 13, 12.8
• So, Range = 13-12 = 1 ml.

Assessment Question
• Find Range of the following data:

13,23,11,25,18,20,40
Range For Group data
• For grouped data, the range is difference
between the upper class boundary of the
highest class and the lower class
boundary of the lowest class.
Example:
Find Range of the following data.
Groups 60-64 65-69 70-74 75-79 80-84 85-89
F 127 133 142 178 140 130
 Solution
Groups Class Boundary

60-64 59.5-64.5
65-69 64.5-69.5
70-74 69.5-74.5
75-79 74.5-79.5
80-84 79.5-84.5
85-89 84.5-89.5

Xm= 89.5, Xo= 59.5

Range= Xm – Xo
Range= 89.5 – 59.5=
Co-efficient of Range

•
 Advantages and
Disadvantages of Range
Advantages Disadvantages
• It is easy to understand • It is a poor measure of
and explain. variability as it
• It is easy to calculate. accounts only two
• It is used in statistical extreme value of
quality control. data.
• It is useful as a rough • It is not possible of
measure of variation. compute range in the
case of open-end
distribution.
• It is not a satisfactory
measure in the case of
frequency distribution.
 2.VARIANCE
• The variance is the average of the squares
of the distance each value is from the mean.
• It is a measure of how far a set of numbers is
spread out from their average value.
• The symbol for the population variance is δ2.
• Mathematically, variance is defined as :
2

2 =  ( X   )2
  X2 
   X  (for population data)

N N  N 
2
2
S =  ( X  X )2
  X2 
   X  (for sample data)

n n  n 
X = individual value
µ = population mean
N = population size
 Example

Data of a population

35, 45, 30, 35, 40, 25

Find the variance and S.D

Solution
 Example
• Find the sample variance and standard
deviation for the amount of European
auto sales for a sample of 6 years
shown.
– The data are in millions of dollars.
(Source: USA TODAY)

11.2, 11.9, 12.0, 12.8, 13.4, 14.3

• Find the variance and S.D

Solution
 VARIANCE FOR FREQUENCY
DISTRIBUTION
• For frequency distribution (discrete or
continuous), variance is expressed as.
2

S 2
=  f (X  X) 2

  fX 2
  fX 
 
f f  f 

• It is important to mention that variance

is always be positive number (or non-
negative). It can not be a negative
value.
• Squaring the standard deviation gives
the variance.
3.STANDARD DEVIATION
• The Standard Deviation is a measure,
which describes how much individual
measurements differ, on the average,
from the mean.
• A large standard deviation shows that
there is a wide scatter of measured
values around the mean.
• Small standard deviation shows that
the individual values are concentrated
around the mean with little variation
among them.
• Standard deviation: it is the square root
of the variance
 STANDARD DEVIATION
• Standard deviation is the square root of
variance and is expressed as:

SD  =
 ( X  ) 2

 X2 
 
 X
 (for population data)
N N  N 
 
2

S=
 (X  X ) 2

 X 
2

 X
 (for sample data)
n n  n 
 
 STANDARD DEVIATION FOR
FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION

• For frequency distribution (discrete or

continuous), standard deviation is
expressed as:
2

SD S = Variance 
 f (X  X ) 2


fX 2
 
 fX 

f f 
  f 

• Note: Standard deviation will always be a

positive number (or non-negative). It can
not be a negative value. Standard deviation
is an absolute measure of dispersion.
 FINDING SAMPLE/POPULATION
VARIANCE AND S.D

• Step 1: Find the mean for the data.

(Population Data)
(sample data)
• Step 2: Subtract the mean from each
data value.
• Step 3: Square each result .
• Step 4: Find the sum of the squares.
• Step 5: Divide the sum by N to get the
variance.
• Step 6: Take the square root of the
variance to get the standard deviation.
 Step:2 Example Step:3

• Data:
Data:1,2,3,4,5
1,2,3,4,5
xi x Xi - x (Xi – x)2 S (Xi – x)2/n-1
1 1-3 (-2) 2=4
2 2-3 (-1) 2 =1
3 3-3 (0) 2 =0
3
4 4-3 (1) 2 =1 Step:5

5 5-3 (2) 2 =4
15 15/5= 0 10 S2 = 10/4=2.5
3 S = √2.5 = 1.6

Step:1 Step:4 Step:6

Finding the Sample Variance
and S.D for Grouped Data
 Example
Miles Run per Week
Find the variance and the standard
deviation for the frequency distribution
of the data. The data represent the
number of miles that 20 runners ran
during one week.
 Solution
Step 1: Make a table and find the
midpoint of each class.
 Concept of ± 1 SD, ± 2
SD, ± 3 SD
• Standard deviation (SD) is used for data
which are “normally distributed”
• SD indicates how much a set of values is
spread around the average.
• A range of one SD above and below the
mean (abbreviated to ± 1 SD) includes
68.2% of the values.
±2 SD includes 95.4% of the data.
±3 SD includes 99.7%.
Example
 Advantages and
disadvantages of standard
deviation
Advantages
• It is based on all the values .
• Much use in inferential statistics ,play role
in normal distribution.
• It is less affected by fluctuations of
sampling.
• It is useful comparing number of different
sets of data.
Disadvantages
• It is difficult to calculate.
• It is affected by extreme value.
• It gives more weight to extreme values and
less of those which are near the mean.