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Standard Deviation

Author: Alexander Greene

Terminology

Some terminology that will be introduced in this packet is:

  •  Standard deviation
  •  Empirical Rule
  •  Chebyshev's theorem

Source: Greene

Standard Deviation

In this powerpoint we talk about how to interpret standard deviation, the empirical rule, and Chebychev's theorem.

Source: Greene

Real Life Applications of Standard Deviation

In sports, you can look at standard deviation of scores to see how consistent a team is.

For example, If an NBA team has an average of 110 points per game, that is very good. But if they have a high standard deviation, that means that they will score very few points on certain nights, and a lot more points on other nights. You would rather have a team consistently scoring around 110 points, instead of scoring 85 points one night, and 135 points the next.

Land can change temperatures quite a bit easier than water. This means that even though the average temperature of two places may be the same, the standard deviations will vary greatly. A coastal city may have temperatures that vary between 40 and 70 degrees, whereas a city far inland could have a range of temperatures between -10 and 100 degrees. They have averages that are similar, but their standard deviations will vary greatly.

Source: Greene