Let be observations with and . Find the standard deviation.
- A
- B
- C
- D
Let be observations with and . Find the standard deviation.
Correct answer:B
Standard Method
Given: , , and .
Find: The standard deviation of the observations.
Use the variance formula:
First, determine from
Substituting the given values,
Hence,
Now substitute into the variance formula:
Therefore, the standard deviation is
So, the correct option is B.
Direct Standard Deviation Formula
Given: , , and .
Find: The standard deviation.
Use the direct formula
So we only need .
From the identity
we get
Hence,
Therefore, the correct option is B.
Using as if it were is incorrect, because cross-product terms and square terms are different. First use the expansion of to find .
Forgetting the factor of in
\left(\sum a_k\right)^2 = \sum a_k^2 + 2\sum_{kComputing standard deviation directly from the mean without first finding the variance can lead to mixing formulas. First calculate correctly, then take the square root to obtain .
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