Final answer:
The standard deviation is the best measure for reporting results to an audience as it describes the spread of the data in the same units as the original measurements, making it easier to understand than variance.
Step-by-step explanation:
When reporting results to an audience, the measure of data spread that is best suited for this purpose is the standard deviation. The standard deviation is a measure of how spread out the numbers in a data set are. Unlike variance, which is the square of the standard deviation, the standard deviation has the same units as the data itself, making it easier for audiences to understand the level of spread in the data in the context of the original measurements. In contrast, variance is less intuitively understood because it does not have the same units as the data.
To emphasize, the standard deviation allows us to compare individual data points or groups to the data set mean numerically. We can use it to determine whether a particular data value is close to or far from the mean. This makes it a valuable tool for conveying information about variability in a data set. However, for mathematical calculations and theoretical work, both standard deviation and variance are essential and related measures of spread.