Math 2311

Class Notes for Section 1.3

Another important question we want to answer about data is about its spread or dispersion. Roughl spea!ing"
the population standard deviation" #" tells the a$erage distance that data $alues fall from the mean. %he
standard de$iation is the square root of the population variance" #
2
. So" what is the $ariance& %he $ariance is
the a$erage of the squared differences of the data $alues from the mean.
'f N is the number of $alues in a population with mean

" and

x
i
represents each indi$idual $alue in the
population" then the $ariance is found b(

2
=
)x
i
*
2
i=1
N

N

And the population standard de$iation is

=
2

Most of the time we are not wor!ing with the entire population. 'nstead" we are wor!ing with a sample.
Sample $ariance +

s
2
=
)x
i
x*
2
i=1
n

n1

Sample standard de$iation +

s= s
2

,-ample(
1. A statistics teacher wants to decide whether or not to cur$e an e-am. .rom her class of 3// students" she
chose a sample of 1/ students and their grades were(

02" 11" 12" 11" 3/" 24" 0/" 02" 33" 43
.ind the mean" $ariance and standard de$iation for this sample.
2. Suppose the statistics teacher decides to cur$e the grades b adding 1/ points to each score. 5hat is the
new mean" $ariance and standard de$iation&
5e can see from e-ample 2 that adding the same $alue to all elements does not affect the $ariance )or
standard de$iation* of a set of data. 5hat about multipling&
3. .ind the $ariance and the standard de$iation for the following set of data )whose mean is 4.2*
3" 3" 2" 0" 4" 2
Now" multipl each $alue b 2. 5hat is the new $ariance and the new standard de$iation&
Sometimes we want to compare the $ariation between two groups. %he coefficient of variation can be used
for this. %he coefficient of $ariation is the ratio of the standard de$iation to the mean. A smaller ratio will
indicate less $ariation in the data.
,-ample(
4. %he following statistics were collected on two different groups of stoc! prices(
5hat can be said about the $ariabilit of each portfolio&
6ortfolio A 6ortfolio 7
Sample si8e 1/ 12
Sample mean 922.32 94:.1/
Sample standard de$iation 93.2/ 92.:2