Lesson 3: Measures of Dispersion

Measures of Dispersion – indicate the extent to which individual items in a series are scattered about an
average.
General Classifications of Measures of Dispersion
- Measures of Absolute Dispersion
- Measures of Relative Dispersion
Measures of Absolute Dispersion – are expressed in the units of the original observations.
Example:
a. -10, 0, 10, 20, 30 b. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

1. Range - is the simplest measure of variation. The difference between the largest and the smallest
value in a given set of data.

Range (R) = maximum value – minimum value

2. Variance - measures how far a data set is spread out.

Where: x = numbers in the data set

𝜇 = mean
N = population

3. Standard Deviation - measures the spread of the data about the mean value.
Measures of Relative Dispersion
- are unit less and are used when one wishes to compare the scatter of one distribution with another
distribution.
1. Coefficient of Variation (CV) – is the ration of the standard deviation to the mean and is usually expressed
in percentage.
𝜎
𝐶𝑉 = 𝑥100%
𝜇
* The data with larger CV is more variable.
Example:
A laboratory technician studied recent measurements made with two different instruments. The first measured
the diameter of a ball bearing and obtained a mean of 4.96mm with standard deviation of 0.022 mm. The second
measured the diameter of a metal rod and obtained a mean of 6.48 mm with a standard deviation of 0.032 mm.
Which of the two instruments was relatively more precise?

2. The standard Score – measure how many standard deviations an observation is above or below the mean.

𝑥−𝜇
𝑍=
𝜎
Example:
Enrique got a grade of 75% in English and a grade of 90% in History. The mean grade in English is 65% and the
standard deviation is 10%, whereas in History, the mean grade is 80% and the standard deviation is 20%. In
which subject did Enrique perform better?

Probability Distribution
A function whose value is a real number determined by each element in the sample space is called a random
variable. It is a quantity resulting from an experiment that, by chance, can assume different values.
We use the term random variable to describe the value that corresponds the outcome from a given experiment.
Example: A coin is tossed three times. List down the elements of the sample space. List down the possible
values of a random variable, the number of heads that fall.
Assignment:
1. Find the Range, Variance and Standard Deviation of the following data sets:
Data set a: 15, 16, 7, 5, 14, 10
Data set b: 110, 125, 98, 85, 62, 100

2. On a final examination in statistics, the average grade of 100 students of DS School was 80 and the standard
deviation was 8. In another school, DF School, the average grade of 120 students was 75 and the standard
deviation was 7.9. Find the coefficient variation, standard score and determine which school performed better.