Probability & Statistics

Math-361
Lecture No. 7

Measures of central Tendency

 Measure of Dispersion, Moments and
Skewness
A quantity that measures how data is dispersed
about the average, is called a measure of dispersion,
scatter or variability.
It is desirable to have the measure of dispersion
• In same units as the observations
• Zero when all observations are equal
• Independent of origin
• Multiplied or divided by a constant when each
observation is multiplied or divide by a constant
 Measures of dispersion
There are two types of measures of dispersion
• Absolute: measures dispersion in same units
• Relative: Expressed in the form of Ratio, Co-
efficient or percentage (Independent of unit)
Main measures of dispersion are following
• The Range
• The mean deviation or average deviation
• The Variance and Standard Deviation
 The Range
The Range “R”, is defined as the difference
between the largest and the smallest
observations in a set of data. If is largest
observation and denotes the smallest then,

This is an absolute measure of dispersion its

relative measure known as co-efficient of
dispersion is
Co-efficient of dispersion=
 Example
The marks obtained by 9 students are given as
45,32,37,46,39,41,48,36 Find range and co-
efficient of dispersion?

Solution: here
So marks
And Co-efficient of dispersion=
 Mean Deviation
The mean deviation (M.D.) is defined as the
arithmetic mean of deviations measured from
mean or median, all observations being counted
as positive

For Grouped Data (Frequency distribution)

 Cont…
Mean deviation is absolute measure of
dispersion. Its relative measure, known as co-
efficient of mean deviation is obtained by
Co-efficient of M.D.
THE VARIANCE AND STANDARD DEVIATION

The variance is defined as the mean of the

squares of deviations of all the observations
from their mean. When it is calculated from the
entire population it is called population
variance, denoted by and defined by

Standard deviation is positive root of variance.

Alternative Formula

For Grouped Data

Co-efficient of S.D.=