Question

How to find the variance of a data set:

a. Mean absolute deviation
b. Standard deviation
c. Range analysis
d. Variance formula calculation

Answer 1

The correct method to find the variance of a data set is option (d) Variance formula calculation.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the variance of a data set, you use the variance formula, which involves the following steps:

1. Find the mean (average) of the data set.

2. Subtract the mean from each data point, square the result.

3. Find the average of these squared differences.

The formula for variance
`(\(\sigma^2\))` is expressed as:

`\[\sigma^2 = \frac{\sum_(i=1)^(n) (x_i - \bar{x})^2}{n}\]`

where
`\(x_i\)` is each individual data point,
`\(\bar{x}\)` is the mean, and
`\(n\)` is the number of data points. This method provides a measure of how spread out the values are in the data set, taking into account the squared differences from the mean.