Lesson 12-4 Measures of Variation

Objectives: Find the range of a data set Find the variance and standard deviation of a data set Interpret standard deviation

A. Measures of Variation
In this section we will study measures of variation, which will help to describe how the data within a set vary. The three most commonly used measures of variation are range, variance, and standard deviation.

B. The Range
The range of a data set is the difference between the highest and lowest values in the set.

Range = Highest value lowest value Video

1. The first list below is the weights of the dogs in the first picture, and the second is the weights of the dogs in the second picture. Find the mean and range for each list. 1st: 70, 73, 58, 60 2nd: 30, 85, 40, 125, 42, 75, 60, 55

Lesson 12-4 Measures of Variation

C. Variance and Standard Deviation

If most of the values are similar, but theres just one unusually high value, the range will make it look like theres a lot more variation than there actually is. For this reason, we will next define variance and standard deviation, which are much more reliable measures of variation. Procedure for Finding the Variance and Standard Deviation Step 1 Find the mean. Step 2 Subtract the mean from each data value in the data set. Step 3 Square the differences. Step 4 Find the sum of the squares. Step 5 Divide the sum by n 1 to get the variance, where n is the number of data values. Step 6 Take the square root of the variance to get the standard deviation. The variance for a data set is an approximate average of the square of the distance between each value and the mean. If X represents individual values, X is the mean and n is the number of values:

X ( 2 X) Vn ac r e i a
n 1

The standard deviation is the square root of the variance

2. The heights in inches of the top six scorers for the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 20082009 season are listed below. Find the variance and standard deviation. 80 73 87 74 83 74

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Lesson 12-4 Measures of Variation

D. Interpreting Standard Deviation

3. A professor has two sections of Math 115 this semester. The 8:30 A.M. class has a mean score of 74% with a standard deviation of 3.6%. The 2 P.M. class also has a mean score of 74%, but a standard deviation of 9.2%. What can we conclude about the students averages in these two sections?

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Lesson 12-4 Measures of Variation

4. Construct a stem and leaf plot. Then, find the mean, median, mode, midrange, range, standard deviation and variance:

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