DESCRIPTIVE MEASURES

Measures of Variation

ALLPPT.com _ Free PowerPoint Templates, Diagrams and Charts

Consider the following situation:
A testing lab wishes to test two experimental brands of outdoor paint to see
how long each will last before fading. The testing lab makes 6 gallons of
each paint to test. Since different chemical agents are added to each group
and only six cans are involved, these two groups constitute two small
populations. The results (in months) are shown. Find the mean of each
group.
Brand A Brand B
10 35
60 45
50 30
30 35
40 40
20 25
Mean for Brand A:

Mean for Brand B:

Since the means are equal, can we conclude that both brands
of paint last equally well?
Below is a graphical representation of the data set. What can
you say about the two brands of paint based on the graphs?
 MEASURES OF VARIATION
• To describe the data set accurately, it is not enough to
simply use averages or measures of location. We need
additional measures such as measures of variation or
dispersion to describe further the data set.
• The measures of variation that are commonly used are:
range, interquartile range, variance, and standard
deviation.
 MEASURES OF VARIATION

Range
• The range is the simplest measure of variation defined as the difference
between the maximum and minimum values
• It depends on the extremes; it ignores information about what goes in
between the smallest (minimum) and largest (maximum) values in the
data set.
• The larger the range, the larger is the dispersion of the data set.
Find the ranges for both brands of paint.
Brand A Brand B
10 35
60 45
50 30
30 35
40 40
20 25

For Brand A:

For Brand B:
 MEASURES OF VARIATION
Interquartile Range (IQR)
• The difference between the 1st and 3rd quartiles
• It gives the spread of the middle 50% of the data set
• The higher the value of the IQR, the larger is the dispersion
of the data set.
Find the IQR for both brands of paint.
Brand A Brand B
10 25
20 30
30 35
40 35
50 40
60 45
For Brand A:

For Brand B:
 MEASURES OF VARIATION
Variance and Standard Deviation
• For a more meaningful measure of variability, statisticians use
the variance and standard deviation.
 Find the variance and standard deviation for the
data set for brand A paint. Brand A
10 625
20 225
30 25
40 25
50 225
60 625
Step 1. Find the mean for the data.

Step 2. Subtract the mean from each data value

and then square the result.
Step 3. Find the sum of the squares.

∑ (𝑋−𝜇) =1750
Brand A
2
10 625
20 225
30 25
40 25
50 225
60 625
Step 4. Divide the sum by N to get the variance.

Step 5. Take the square root of the variance to

get the standard deviation.
 MEASURES OF VARIATION
Variance and Standard Deviation
• Variance is a measure of dispersion that accounts for the
average squared deviation of each observation from the
mean
• Unit of measurement of the variance is the square of the unit
used in measuring each observation.
Note: the squared distances are used instead of the actual distances since
the sum of the distances will always be zero.
 MEASURES OF VARIATION
Variance and Standard Deviation
• Some units of measurement might be difficult to interpret
when squared. Thus, the square root of the variance is
obtained.
• The standard deviation is the positive square root of the
variance.
• The standard deviation has the same unit as the observations
in the data set.
 MEASURES OF VARIATION
Formula for the population Formula for the standard
variance, deviation,

where: individual value

population mean
population size
Find the variance and standard deviation for the data set for
brand B paint and compare these values with that of Brand A.
Brand B 𝜇 =35

∑ (𝑋−𝜇) =250
25 100
30 25
2
35 0
2250
35 0 𝜎 = = 41.7
40 25
6
45 100
𝜎 = √ 41.7=6.5

Since the standard deviation of brand A is 17.1 and the

standard deviation of brand B is 6.5, the data are more variable
for brand A.
 MEASURES OF VARIATION
Variance and Standard Deviation
• The variance and standard deviation are based on all the
observations in the data set
• They are extremely useful measures of variability as they
measure the average scattering of the data around the mean,
that is how large data fluctuate above and below the mean.
 MEASURES OF VARIATION
Variance and Standard Deviation
• The variance and standard deviation increase with an
increase in the deviations about the mean and decrease with
decreases in these deviations
• A small standard deviation (and variance) means a high de-
gree of uniformity in the observations and of homogeneity in
a series.
Score in a No. of Long Test scores of 150 grade 11
Long <CF
Students students of a nearby Senior High
Test
10 4 4
School:
16 5 9 Calculate the range.
18 5 14
20 15 29 Range = 50 – 10
25 19 48 = 40
30 22 70
33 18 88
38 28 116
40 10 126
42 7 133
45 8 141
50 9 150
Score in a No. of
Long Students
<CF Long Test scores of 150 grade 11
Test students of a nearby Senior High
10 4 4 School:
16 5 9
18 5 14 Calculate the IQR.
20 15 29
25 19 48 From our previous
30 22 70 calculations:
33 18 88
38 28 116
40 10 126
42 7 133
45 8 141
50 9 150
Score in a No. of
Long Students
Test
484
10 4
Calculate the variance and the
256
16 5
standard deviation.
196 Recall that the mean is .
18 5 144
20 15 49
25 19 4
30 22 1
33 18 36
38 28 64
40 10 100
42 7 169
45 8 324
50 9
Take the sum of the squared difference. Note that to account for all the
observations, multiply each squared difference with the number of students.
Score in a Long No. of
Test Students
10 4 484 1936
16 5 256 1280
18 5 196 980
20 15 144 2160
25 19 49 931
30 22 4 88
33 18 1 18
38 28 36 1008
40 10 64 640
42 7 100 700
45 8 169 1352
50 9 324 2916
Sum = 14009
The variance is then obtained by dividing the sum by the total number of
observations

The standard deviation is the square root of the variance. Thus,

To interpret, we say that on the average, the scores of the students deviate
from the mean score of 32 points by as much as 9.6640 or approximately 10
points.
 MEASURES OF VARIATION
Sample Variance and Standard Deviation
• The formula for the sample variance, denoted by , is

where: = sample mean

= sample size

• The standard deviation, denoted by , is

 MEASURES OF VARIATION
Sample Variance and Standard Deviation
• The expression does not give the best estimate of the population vari-
ance because when the population is large and the sample is small
(usually less than 30), the variance computed by this formula usually
underestimates the population variance.
• Therefore, instead of dividing by , find the variance of the sample by di-
viding by , giving a slightly larger value and an unbiased estimate of the
population variance.
• The expression is called the degrees of freedom
Example:
Find the sample variance and standard deviation for the
amount of European auto sales for a sample of 6 years shown.
The data are in millions of dollars.

11.2 11.9 12.0 12.8 13.4 14.3

Solution:
Find the mean:
Find the sum of the squared difference from the mean of each
data.
Example:
Find the sample variance and standard deviation for the
amount of European auto sales for a sample of 6 years shown.
The data are in millions of dollars.

11.2 11.9 12.0 12.8 13.4 14.3

Solution:
Solve for the variance:

Solve for the standard deviation:

 MEASURES OF VARIATION
Sample Variance and Standard Deviation
• Alternative formulas

Note: is not the same as . The notation means to square the values first,
then get the sum; means to add the values first, then square the sum.
Example:
A sample of 12 drivers show the time that they spent (in
minutes) stopped in a rush-hour traffic on a specific time of the
day in a certain city.
52 56 53 61 49 51
53 58 53 60 71 58
Find the range, variance, and standard deviation.

Answer (in minutes):

;;