Q:

Find the standard deviation of 21, 31, 26, 24, 28, 26

Accepted Solution

A:
Given the dataset[tex]x = \{21,\ 31,\ 26,\ 24,\ 28,\ 26\}[/tex]We start by computing the average:[tex]\overline{x} = \dfrac{21+31+26+24+28+26}{6}=\dfrac{156}{6}=26[/tex]We compute the difference bewteen each element and the average:[tex]x-\overline{x} = \{-6,\ 5,\ 0,\ -2,\ 2,\ 0\}[/tex]We square those differences:[tex](x-\overline{x})^2 = \{36,\ 25,\ 0,\ 4,\ 4,\ 0\}[/tex]And take the average of those squared differences: we sum them[tex]\displaystyle \sum_{i=1}^n (x-\overline{x})^2=36+25+4+4+0+0=69[/tex]And we divide by the number of elements:[tex]\displaystyle \sigma^2=\dfrac{\sum_{i=1}^n (x-\overline{x})^2}{n} = \dfrac{69}{6} = 11.5[/tex]Finally, we take the square root of this quantity and we have the standard deviation:[tex]\displaystyle\sigma = \sqrt{\dfrac{\sum_{i=1}^n (x-\overline{x})^2}{n}} = \sqrt{11.5}\approx 3.39[/tex]