::Standard Deviation::

Purpose:
Find the effective of S and RSD regarding the mean the value.

Discussion:
In probability and statistics, the standard deviation is a measure of the dispersion of a collection of numbers. It
can apply to a probability distribution, a random variable, a population or a data set. The standard deviation is
usually denoted with the letter σ (lowercase sigma). It is defined as the root-mean-square (RMS) deviation of
the values from their mean, or as the square root of the variance. Formulated by Galton(1) in the late 1860s,

Example
Suppose we wished to find the standard deviation of the data set consisting of the values 3, 7, 7, and 19.
Step 1: find the arithmetic mean (average) of 3, 7, 7, and 19,
(3 + 7 + 7 + 19) / 4 = 9.
Step 2: find the deviation of each number from the mean,
3−9=−6
7−9=−2
7−9=−2
19 − 9 = 10.

Step 3: square each of the deviations, which amplifies large deviations and    
makes negative values positive,
( − 6)2 = 36 A data set with a mean of 50 
(shown in blue) and a standard 
( − 2)2 = 4
  deviation (σ) of 20.
( − 2)2 = 4
102 = 100.

Step 4: find the mean of those squared deviations,

(36 + 4 + 4 + 100) / 4 = 36.
Step 5: take the non-negative square root of the quotient (converting squared units back to regular units),

So, the standard deviation of the set is 6. This example also shows that, in general, the standard deviation is
different from the mean absolute deviation (which is 5 in this example).

Applications:
Weather
As a simple example, consider average temperatures for cities. While two cities may each have an average
temperature of 15 °C, it's helpful to understand that the range for cities near the coast is smaller than for cities
inland, which clarifies that, while the average is similar, the chance for variation is greater inland than near the
coast.
So, an average of 15 occurs for one city with highs of 25 °C and lows of 5 °C, and also occurs for another city
with highs of 18 and lows of 12. The standard deviation allows us to recognize that the average for the city with
the wider variation, and thus a higher standard deviation, will not offer as reliable a prediction of temperature as
the city with the smaller variation and lower standard deviation.
Relationship between standard deviation and mean:

The mean and the standard deviation of a set of data are usually reported together. In a certain sense, the
standard deviation is a "natural" measure of statistical dispersion if the center of the data is measured about the
mean. This is because the standard deviation from the mean is smaller than from any other point. The precise
statement is the following: suppose x1, ..., xn are real numbers and define the function:

Using calculus, or simply by completing the square, it is possible to show that σ(r) has a unique minimum at the
mean:

(This can also be done with fairly simple algebra alone, since σ2(r) is equated to a quadratic polynomial).

The coefficient of variation of a sample is the ratio of the standard deviation to the mean. It is a dimensionless
number that can be used to compare the amount of variance between populations with different means.

If we want to obtain the mean by sampling the distribution then the standard deviation of the mean is related to
the standard deviation of the distribution by:

where N is the number of samples used to sample the mean.

References:

1. Sir Francis Galton discovered the standard deviation http://www.sciencetimeline.net/1866.htm

2. Standard_deviation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_deviation
3. http://www.stats4students.com/Essentials/Measures-Of-Spread/Overview_3.php
4. http://davidmlane.com/hyperstat/A16252.html