Introduction:

Standard Deviation

Standard deviation is a measure of central tendency. Central tendency refers to the quantity that tells us as
to by how much are the data entries away from the mean of the data set. Standard deviation is usually
denoted by the Greek letter ‘sigma’ s or simply by "s.d.".

It is the positive square root of the arithmetic mean of the squared deviations from the mean of the
distribution. It is considered as the most reliable measure of variability. It is the square root of
the Variance.

SD is a Bell Shaped Curve in a graph of normal distribution illustrates how much deviation or spread
occurred or can be occurred from the expected value or mean of data set. The main purpose of estimating
the sample standard deviation is to measure how widely the individual sample values are being dispersed
from the mean.

Formula:

where ∑-“sum of”

x- is a value in the data set
μ- mean of the data set
N- number of data points in the population

Example 1

6,2,3,1

Step 1: Find the mean.

μ= 6+2+3+1=12=3
4 4

Step 2: For each data point, find the square of its distance to the mean.

Data point x Distance from the mean squared (x−μ)2

6 ∣6−3∣2=32=9
2 2−3∣2=12=1
3 ∣3−3∣2=02=0
1 1−3∣2=-22=4

Step 3: Sum the values from Step 2.

Add up all of the squared distances from the data points to the mean from Step 2
∑∣x−μ∣2=9+1+0+4=14

Step 4: Divide by the number of data points.

Divide the sum from Step 3 by the number of data points (N=4)
∑∣x−μ∣2=14=3.5
N 4

Step 5: Take the square root.

Take the square root of the number we found in Step 4:

√∑∣x−μ∣2=14=√3.5≈1.87
N 4
The standard deviation is 1.87

Example:

Using our set of data based on the grades of student.

86 75 76 82 91

X (X – μ) (X – μ)
86 4 16
75 -7 49
76 -6 36
82 0 0
91 9 81

X=410 (X – μ) = 182

Solving using this formula:

= 182
5

σ 2 = 36.4

Standard Deviation

σ = √36.4
= 6.03

Grouped Data:

where ∑-“sum of”

F- Frequency
M- Mid point
n- number of samples

Example
In a class of students, 9 students scored 50 to 60, 7 students scored 61 to 70, 9 students scored 71 to 85,
12 students scored 86 to 95 and 8 students scored 96 to 100 in the subject of mathematics. Estimate the
standard deviation?

Range Frequency
50-60 9
61-70 7
71-85 9
86-95 12
96-100 8

Step 1: find the mid-point M for each group

(50 + 60)/2 = 55
(61 + 70)/2 = 65.5
(71 + 85)/2 = 78
(86 + 95)/2 = 90.5
(96 + 100)/2 = 98

The mid points are 55, 65.5, 78, 90.5 & 98 for the group of students 50 to 60, 61 to 70, 71 to 85, 86 to 95
& 96 to 100 respectively
Step 2: calculate the number of samples n
n = 9 + 7 + 9 + 12 + 8
n = 45

Step 3: find the grouped data mean μ

μ = (55 x 9 + 65.5 x 7 + 78 x 9 + 90.5 x 12 + 98 x 8 )/n
= 3525.5/45
μ = 78.3444

Step 4: find the variance σ2

= (((9 x 552) + (7 x 65.52) + (9 x 782) + (12 x 90.52) + (8 x 982)) - (45 x 78.34442))/(45 - 1)

= (287127.75 - 276203.025)/ 44
σ2 = 248.2820

Step 5: find standard deviation for the grouped data

Take square root of variance
σ = 15.7569

Assignment: Find the Standard Deviation

The math test scores of the five students are:

92, 88, 80, 68 and 52