AVERAGE AND STANDARD DEVIATION

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Post date: 21 Jun 2015.
Reference: Griffiths, David J. (2005), Introduction to Quantum Mechan-
ics, 2nd Edition; Pearson Education - Problems 1.1 - 1.2.
Having reached the end of the problems in Griffithss book, Ill rewind
and return to chapter 1 to fill in the gaps that I left in my rush to get into the
meat of quantum mechanics.
Probability is at the heart of quantum mechanics, so its a good idea to
be sure we understand some of the basic concepts. Variables in quantum
mechanics come in both discrete and continuous forms, so well do a quick
review of the average, variance and standard deviation in these cases.
In the discrete case, the average of a set of values is just the sum of all
the values divided by the number of values. To make this precise, suppose
that value j occurs N ( j) times; then the average of j is

j jN ( j)
(1) h ji
j N ( j)
The average (also called the mean) is distinct from the median value,
which is the value the divides the set into two equal subsets, with one sub-
set containing values less than the median and the other containing values
greater than the median. (Obviously this works exactly only if we have an
even number of values, but you get the idea.)
Having calculated the average, we can then calculate the deviation j
from that average for each value j. It turns out that the square of the devia-
tion is more useful, so we have

(2) ( j)2 = ( j h ji)2

The variance is the mean of these squares:
D E
(3) 2 = ( j)2
D E
(4) = j2 2 j h ji + h ji2
= j2 h ji2


(5)
1
 AVERAGE AND STANDARD DEVIATION 2

and the standard deviation is the (positive) square root of the variance:
rD E q
2
(6) = ( j) = h j2 i h ji2

The probability of a value j being chosen at random from the set is

N ( j)
(7) P ( j) =
j N ( j)
Example 1. Suppose we have a group of people with ages as follows:
age j N ( j)
14 1
15 1
16 3
22 2
24 2
25 5
For this set, we have

294
(8) h ji = = 21
14
(9) h ji2 = 441

2 6434
(10) j = = 459.57
14
The median age is between 22 and 24 (say, 23) since there are 7 people
with ages greater than 23 and 7 with ages less than 23.
We can now add a column for j:
age j N ( j) j
14 1 7
15 1 6
16 3 5
22 2 1
24 2 3
25 5 4
Therefore
D E 260
(11) 2 = ( j)2 = = 18.57
14
(12) = 4.31
We can check equation 5
 AVERAGE AND STANDARD DEVIATION 3

2 = j2 h ji2


(13)
(14) = 459.57 441 = 18.57
For continuous distributions, we need to use integrals instead of sums to
calculate the various averages. To calculate the average of a function f (x),
we need the probability density (x) dx which gives the probability that the
value of x lies in the interval (x, x + dx). Given this, we then have

(15) h f (x)i = f (x) (x) dx

Some special cases of this formula are used to calculate the average and
variance:

(16) hxi = x (x) dx



2
(17) x = x2 (x) dx

A probability density must be normalized so that if f (x) = 1:

(18) (x) dx = 1

Example 2. Extending Griffithss example 1.1. A rock is dropped off a

cliff of height h. Neglecting air resistance, the position of the rock at time t
(using x = 0 as the top of the cliff and x = h as the bottom) is

1
(19) x (t) = gt 2
2
The time taken for the rock to hit the bottom of the cliff is
s
2h
(20) T=
g
Now suppose that the position of the rock is randomly sampled a large
number of times during its fall. If the sampling times are truly random, the
probability of a sample being taken in any time interval dt is constant and
since the probability that a given sample occurs sometime between t = 0
and t = T must be 1, we have
 AVERAGE AND STANDARD DEVIATION 4

dt
(21) (t) dt =
T

The average location of the rock over all the samples is then

T
(22) hxi = x (t) (t) dt
0
T 
1 2 dt
(23) = gt
0 2 T
gT 2
(24) =
6
h
(25) =
3

Also

T

2
(26) x = x2 (t) (t) dt
0
T  2
1 2 dt
(27) = gt
0 2 T
g2
T4
(28) =
4 5
h2
(29) =
5

The standard deviation is

q
(30) = hx2 i hxi2 = 0.2981h

To get the probability density for position x instead of time, we have

 AVERAGE AND STANDARD DEVIATION 5

dt dx
dt
(31) =
Tdx r
T
dx g
(32) =
gt 2h
r r
dx g g
(33) =
g 2x 2h
dx
(34) =
2 hx
1
(35) (x) =
2 hx
The probability of a sample being taken when x is more than away
from the average is

( 1 0.2981)h h
3
(36) P = (x) dx + (x) dx = 0.393
0 ( 13 +0.2981)h
We could also work this out
without first finding (x) by finding the
times at which x = 31 0.2981 h from 19 and then integrating (t) over
the corresponding time range.
s
1


2 0.2981 h
3
(37) t1 =
g
s
2 31 + 0.2981 h


(38) t2 =
g
 t1 T 
1
(39) P = dt + dt
T 0 t2
s s s

g 2 13 0.2981 h 1
r

2h 2 3 + 0.2981 h
(40) = +
2h g g g
(41) = 0.393
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