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Suppose a sample of 45 measurements gave a data set with a range of –8 to –22. The standard deviation of the measurements a. can be either negative or positive. b. cannot be computed since all the numbers are negative. c. must be at least zero.

User Simbian
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Answer:

c. must be at least zero.

Explanation:

We have been given that a ample of 45 measurements gave a data set with a range of –8 to –22. We are asked to determine the result about the standard deviation.

We know that standard deviation represents measure of dispersion or a data point is how much away from mean. SD can never be negative.

We can see that all the data points are negative.

We also know that standard deviation is positive square root of variance. Since variance is the sum of the squares of the distances from each data point to the mean, so square of a negative number cannot be negative.

Since variance would be positive, therefore standard deviation of the given data set will be positive as well.

Upon looking at our given choices, we can see that option 'c' would be the best choice.

User Onurbaysan
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