Measures of Dispersion

Sl.
Questions
No.
1. The standard deviation of a set of 50 observations is 8. If each observation is multiplied
by 2, then the new value of standard deviation will be:
a. 4
b. 8
c. 16
d. None of the above
2. If mean and coefficient of variation of a set of data is 10 and 5, respectively, then the
standard deviation is:
a. 10
b. 50
c. 5
d. None of the above
3. The semi-interquartile range is preferred to standard deviation as a measure of
dispersion when:
a. Sample size is small
b. Distribution is standardized
c. Distribution is highly skewed
d. Range is small
4. In a more dispersed (spread out) set of data:
a. Difference between the mean and the median is greater
b. Value of the mode is greater
c. Standard deviation is greater
d. Inter-quartile range is smaller
5. Which of the following is a relative measure of dispersion:
a. standard deviation
b. variance
c. coefficient of variation
d. all of the above
6. In a normal frequency distribution, the number of observations included in 𝒙̅ ± MAD
are:
a. 50 percent
b. 57.51 percent
c. 68.51 percent
d. none of the above
7. If quartile deviation is 8, then value of standard deviation will be:
a. 12
b. 16
c. 24
d. none of the above
Sl.
Questions
No.
8. If mean absolute deviation is 8, then value of the standard deviation will be:
a. 15
b. 12
c. 10
d. none of the above
9. If the first and third quartiles are 22.16 and 56.36, respectively, then the quartile
deviation is :
a. 17.1
b. 34.2
c. 51.3
d. none of the above
10. The standard deviation of a set of 50 observations is 6.5. If value of each observation is
increased by 5, then the standard deviation is:
a. 2.5
b. 1.5
c. 3.5
d. none of the above
11. The standard deviation of the first n natural numbers is :
𝟏
a. √ (𝒏𝟐 − 𝟏)
𝟔

𝟏
b. √ (𝒏𝟐 + 𝟏)
𝟔

𝟏
c. √
𝟏𝟐
(𝒏𝟐 − 𝟏)

𝟏
d. √ (𝒏𝟐 + 𝟏)
𝟏𝟐

̅ ± Q.D. are:
12. The number of observations in a set of data covered by the interval, 𝒙
a. 50 percent
b. 57.73 percent
c. 59.23 percent
d. none of the above
̅ ± 3σ are :
13. In a symmetrical distribution, observations covered in the interval 𝒙
a. 99.475 percent
b. 99.65 percent
c. 99.73 percent
d. none of the above
14. The relationship between mean absolute deviation and the quartile deviation is :
𝟓
a. MAD = 𝟔 𝑸. 𝑫

𝟔
b. MAD = 𝟓 𝑸. 𝑫
Sl.
Questions
No.

𝟒
c. MAD = 𝟓 𝑸. 𝑫

𝟓
d. MAD = 𝟒 𝑸. 𝑫
15. Which of the following measures of dispersion is least affected by extreme values of
observations in a data set?
a. Range
b. Quartile deviation
c. Mean absolute deviation
d. Standard deviation

16. Which of the following is not a valid reason for measuring the dispersion of
distribution?
a. It provides an indication of the reliability of the statistic used to measure
central tendency.
b. It enables us to compare several samples with similar averages
c. It uses more data in describing a distribution
d. It draws attention to problems associated with very small or very large
variability in distributions.
17. Why is it necessary to square the differences from the mean when computing the
population variance?
a. So that extreme values will not effect the calculation.
b. Because it is possible that N could be very small
c. some of the differences will be positive some will be negative.
d. None of these.

18. Assume that a population has µ = 100 and σ=10.If a particular observation has a
standard score of 1, it can be concluded that
a. its value is 110.
b. it lies between 90 and 110,but its exact value cannot be determined.
c. its value is greater than 110.
d. nothing can be determined without knowing N.
19. How does the computation of a sample variance differ from the computation of a
population variance?
a. ̅.
µ is replaced by 𝒙
b. N is replaced by n - 1.
c. both (a) and (b)
d. none of these.
Sl.
Questions
No.
20. Chebyshev’s theorem says that 99 percent of the values will lie within ±3 standard
deviations from the mean for
a. bell-shaped distributions.
b. positively skewed distributions.
c. negatively skewed distributions.
d. all distributions.