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Standard Deviation of the Residuals (s)

Definition

The standard deviation of the residuals, denoted as "s", measures the average distance between each observed data point and its corresponding predicted value. It quantifies the amount of variability or dispersion in the residuals.

Analogy

Imagine you are playing darts and aiming for a bullseye. The standard deviation of the residuals is like measuring how close your dart throws are to the center of the target. A smaller standard deviation means your throws are more accurate and clustered tightly around the bullseye, while a larger standard deviation indicates more spread-out throws.

Related terms

Residuals: The differences between observed data points and their corresponding predicted values.

Mean Squared Error (MSE): The average squared difference between observed data points and their corresponding predicted values.

Coefficient of Determination (R-squared): A measure that represents the proportion of variation in the dependent variable that can be explained by the independent variable(s).