Measures of variation describe how spread out or scattered the values in a data set are. They include range, variance, and standard deviation among others.
Think about making popcorn. Some kernels pop quickly while others take longer - this is your range. The average time it takes for all kernels to pop is like your mean, but measures of variation tell you about the differences in popping times - some might be way quicker or slower than others!
Range: The difference between the highest and lowest values in a dataset.
Variance: A measure of how much individual data points differ from the mean value in a dataset.
Interquartile Range (IQR): The range within which the middle 50% of your data falls into.
Study guides for the entire semester
200k practice questions
Glossary of 50k key terms - memorize important vocab
© 2024 Fiveable Inc. All rights reserved.
AP® and SAT® are trademarks registered by the College Board, which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse this website.