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Understanding Standard Deviation

The standard deviation is a measure of how spread out numbers are in a data set from the mean. It is calculated by taking the square root of the variance. The variance is the average of the squared differences from the mean. Adding or subtracting a constant to all data points does not change the standard deviation, but multiplying all points by a constant multiplies the standard deviation by that same constant. A normal distribution graph shows that about 68% of values fall within 1 standard deviation of the mean, 95% within 2 standard deviations, and 99% within 3 standard deviations.

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Oleg Tkalych
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15 views1 page

Understanding Standard Deviation

The standard deviation is a measure of how spread out numbers are in a data set from the mean. It is calculated by taking the square root of the variance. The variance is the average of the squared differences from the mean. Adding or subtracting a constant to all data points does not change the standard deviation, but multiplying all points by a constant multiplies the standard deviation by that same constant. A normal distribution graph shows that about 68% of values fall within 1 standard deviation of the mean, 95% within 2 standard deviations, and 99% within 3 standard deviations.

Uploaded by

Oleg Tkalych
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© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Statistics 123

8-2. Standard Deviation

The variance, denoted d 2 , and the standard deviation of a data set {x1 , x2 ,  , xn } are defined as follows.
( x1 − m) 2 + ( x2 − m) 2 +  + ( xn − m) 2
= d=
Variance 2
, in which m is the mean of n numbers.
n
( x1 − m) 2 + ( x2 − m) 2 +  + ( xn − m) 2
=
Standard deviation =
d2
n
In a data set, if the same number k is added to each number, the mean and the median are increased by k ,
while the range and the standard deviation remain unchanged.
If each number in a data set is multiplied by the same number k , the mean, median, range, and standard
deviation are all multiplied by k .
In general, when the measures are clustered close to the mean the standard deviation is small, and when
the measures are widely spread apart the standard deviation is relatively large.
The graph of the normal distribution, called the normal curve, is a symmetrical bell shaped curve which
shows the relationship between the standard deviation and the observations.

The Normal Curve

Normal distributions have these properties.


1. The mean m is at the center.
2. About 68% of the values are within one
standard deviation from the mean.
3. About 95% of the values are within two
standard deviations from the mean.
4. About 99% of the values are within three
standard deviations from the mean.
m − 3d m − 2d m−d m m+d m + 2d m + 3d

68%

95%
99%

Example 1 □ Find the variance and the standard deviation of the data set {3, 5, 12, 16, 19} .

3 + 5 + 12 + 16 + 19 55
Solutions □ Mean
= = = 11
5 5

(3 − 11) 2 + (5 − 11) 2 + (12 − 11) 2 + (16 − 11) 2 + (19 − 11) 2


= d=
Variance 2
= 38
5
=
Standard deviation =
d2 38 ≈ 6.2

Example 2 □ On a test, 82 is the arithmetic mean and 6 is the standard deviation. What value is
exactly two standard deviations more than the mean?

Solutions □ Two standard deviations more than the mean is 82 + 2(6) =


94 .

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