Showing posts with label equation for standard deviation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label equation for standard deviation. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Stepwise Calculation of Standard Deviation


In Statistics a branch of Mathematics, Standard Deviation is the mean of mean. It is the measure which helps us to know how the data is spread out.  It is denoted by the Greek symbol sigma. Formula for Standard-Deviation is given by square root of variance, variance is defined as the average of the squared differences from the mean given by the formula sigma^2 = 1/(n-1)[summation(i=1 to n)(xi – x bar)^2]. So, the Formula Standard Deviation is given as sigma = sqrt{ [summation(i=1 to n)(xi – x bar)^2]/(n-1)}
Equation for Standard Deviation is given by sigma = sqrt[summation(k=1 to n)(xk – x bar)^2/(n-1)]
 n=total number of values, x bar = mean of the data, xk= each of the data values

How to find Standard Deviation for a given data? The following are the steps involved to find Standard-Deviation of a given data:
1. Mean of the given data is calculated
2. Then the deviations are calculated
3. Find the square of these deviations
4. Find the sum of the squares of the deviations
5. Divide the sum by one less than the total numbers in the data
6. Finally find the square root of the value got from the step 5, this result is the standard-deviation
Let us consider an example to understand how to find standard-deviation
Given data, 91, 23, 47, 62, 76, 38, 82, 29

Step1: First we find the average of the given data, [91+23+47+62+76+38+28+82+29]/8= 59.5
So, the mean =  59.5
Step2: The deviations are calculated by subtracting the mean from each given data value.
(91-59.5), (23-59.5), (47-59.5), (62-59.5), (76-59.5), (38 – 59.5), (82-59.5), (29 – 59.5)
      So, the deviations are, 31.5, -36.5, -12.5, 2.5, 16.5, -21.5, 22.5, -30.5
Step3: Squares of the above deviations are,
992.25, 1332.25, 156.25, 6.25, 272.25, 462.25, 506.25, 930.25
Step4: Sum of the squares of the deviations is 4658
Step5: Divide the sum 4658 with (n-1) = one less than total number of values = (8-1) = 7 which gives,
             4658/7 = 665.43
Step6: Standard-Deviation is the square root of the value got in the step5,
Standard-deviation, sigma = sqrt(665.43) = 25.79

Calculate Standard Deviation of the given data,  7, 9, 12, 6, 4, 13, 21, 14, 22, 16
Total Number of values = n = 10
]
Step1: Mean of the given data, (7+9+12+6+4+13+21+14+22+16)/10 = 124/10 = 12.4
Step2: Deviations are calculated by subtracting the mean from each of the data values which are,
            -5.4, -3.4, -0.4,-6.4, -8.4, 0.6, 8.6, 1.6, 9.6, 3.6
Step3: Squares of the deviations are, 29.16, 11.56, 0.16, 40.96, 70.56, 0.36, 73.96, 2.56, 92.16, 12.96
Step4: Sum of the squares of the deviations is 334.4
Step5: divide the sum with (n-1) = (10-1= 9) which gives 334.4/9 = 37.15
Step6: Standard-deviation, sigma = sqrt(37.15) = 6.095