DACUMOS, Alexander N.

BMLS II-2

Measure Variability
Statisticians use summary measures to describe the amount of variability or spread in a set of
data. The most common measures of variability are the range, the interquartile range (IQR),
variance, and standard deviation.

The Range
The range is the difference between the largest and smallest values in a set of values.
For example, consider the following numbers: 1, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 11. For this set of numbers, the
range would be 11 - 1 or 10.

The Interquartile Range (IQR)

The interquartile range (IQR) is a measure of variability, based on dividing a data set
into quartiles.

Quartiles divide a rank-ordered data set into four equal parts. The values that divide each part
are called the first, second, and third quartiles; and they are denoted by Q1, Q2, and Q3,
respectively.
Q1 is the "middle" value in the first half of the rank-ordered data set.
Q2 is the median value in the set.
Q3 is the "middle" value in the second half of the rank-ordered data set.
The interquartile range is equal to Q3 minus Q1. For example, consider the following numbers:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

Q2 is the median of the entire data set - the middle value. In this example, we have an even
number of data points, so the median is equal to the average of the two middle values. Thus,
Q2 = (4 + 5)/2 or Q2 = 4.5. Q1 is the middle value in the first half of the data set. Since there are
an even number of data points in the first half of the data set, the middle value is the average
of the two middle values; that is, Q1 = (2 + 3)/2 or Q1 = 2.5. Q3 is the middle value in the
second half of the data set. Again, since the second half of the data set has an even number of

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observations, the middle value is the average of the two middle values; that is, Q3 = (6 + 7)/2 or
Q3 = 6.5. The interquartile range is Q3 minus Q1, so IQR = 6.5 - 2.5 = 4.
Notice that this process divided the data set into four parts of equal size. The first part consists
of 1 and 2; the second part, 3 and 4; the third part, 5 and 6; and the fourth part, 7 and 8.

An Alternative Definition for IQR

In some texts, the interquartile range is defined differently. It is defined as the difference
between the largest and smallest values in the middle 50% of a set of data.
To compute an interquartile range using this definition, first remove observations from the
lower quartile. Then, remove observations from the upper quartile. Then, from the remaining
observations, compute the difference between the largest and smallest values.
For example, consider the following numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. After we remove
observations from the lower and upper quartiles, we are left with: 3, 4, 5, 6. The interquartile
range (IQR) would be 6 - 3 = 3.

The Variance
In a population, variance is the average squared deviation from the population mean, as
defined by the following formula:
σ2 = Σ ( Xi - μ )2 / N
where σ2 is the population variance, μ is the population mean, X i is the ith element from the
population, and N is the number of elements in the population.
Observations from a simple random sample can be used to estimate the variance of a
population. For this purpose, sample variance is defined by slightly different formula, and uses
a slightly different notation:
s2 = Σ ( xi - x )2 / ( n - 1 )
where s2 is the sample variance, x is the sample mean, xi is the ith element from the sample,
and n is the number of elements in the sample. Using this formula, the sample variance can be
considered an unbiased estimate of the true population variance. Therefore, if you need to
estimate an unknown population variance, based on data from a simple random sample, this is
the formula to use.

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The Standard Deviation

The standard deviation is the square root of the variance. Thus, the standard deviation of a
population is:
σ = sqrt [ σ2 ] = sqrt [ Σ ( Xi - μ )2 / N ]
where σ is the population standard deviation, μ is the population mean, X i is the ith element
from the population, and N is the number of elements in the population.
Statisticians often use simple random samples to estimate the standard deviation of a
population, based on sample data. Given a simple random sample, the best estimate of the
standard deviation of a population is:
s = sqrt [ s2 ] = sqrt [ Σ ( xi - x )2 / ( n - 1 ) ]
where s is the sample standard deviation, x is the sample mean, xi is the ith element from the
sample, and n is the number of elements in the sample.

Effect of Changing Units

Sometimes, researchers change units (minutes to hours, feet to meters, etc.). Here is how
measures of variability are affected when we change units.
If you add a constant to every value, the distance between values does not change. As a result,
all of the measures of variability (range, interquartile range, standard deviation, and variance)
remain the same.
On the other hand, suppose you multiply every value by a constant. This has the effect of
multiplying the range, interquartile range (IQR), and standard deviation by that constant. It has
an even greater effect on the variance. It multiplies the variance by the square of the constant.

Normal Distribution
Normal Probability Distributions
The Normal Probability Distribution is very common in the field of statistics.
Whenever you measure things like people's height, weight, salary, opinions or votes, the graph
of the results is very often a normal curve.
The Normal Distribution
A random variable X whose distribution has the shape of a normal curve is called a normal
random variable.

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This random variable X is said to be normally distributed with mean μ and standard
deviation σ if its probability distribution is given by

Properties of a Normal Distribution

 The normal curve is symmetrical about the mean μ;

 The mean is at the middle and divides the area into halves;
 The total area under the curve is equal to 1;
 It is completely determined by its mean and standard deviation σ (or variance σ2)
Note:
In a normal distribution, only 2 parameters are needed, namely μ and σ2.

Area Under the Normal Curve using Integration

The probability of a continuous normal variable X found in a particular interval [a, b] is the area
under the curve bounded by X=a and x=b and is given by

and the area depends upon the values of μ and σ.

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The Standard Normal Distribution

It makes life a lot easier for us if we standardize our normal curve, with a mean of zero and a
standard deviation of 1 unit.
If we have the standardized situation of μ = 0 and σ = 1, then we have:

We can transform all the observations of any normal random variable X with mean μ and
variance σ to a new set of observations of another normal random variable Z with mean 0 and
variance 1 using the following transformation:

Formula for the Standardized Normal Distribution

If we have mean μ and standard deviation σ, then

Since all the values of X falling between x1 and x2 have corresponding Z values
between z1 and z2, it means:
The area under the X curve between X = x1 and X = x2 equals the area under the Z curve
between Z = z1 and Z = z2.
Hence, we have the following equivalent probabilities:

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Percentages of the Area Under the Standard Normal Curve

A graph of this standardized (mean 0 and variance 1) normal curve is shown.

In the above graph, we have indicated the areas between the regions as follows:
−1 ≤ Z ≤ 1 68.27%
−2 ≤ Z ≤ 2 95.45%
−3 ≤ Z ≤ 3 99.73%
This means that 68.27% of the scores lie within 1 standard deviation of the mean.
This comes from:

Also, 95.45% of the scores lie within 2 standard deviations of the mean.
This comes from:

Finally, 99.73% of the scores lie within 3 standard deviations of the mean.
This comes from:

The total area from −∞ < z < ∞ is 1.

The z-Table
The areas under the curve bounded by the ordinates z = 0 and any positive value of z are found
in the z-Table. From this table the area under the standard normal curve between any two
ordinates can be found by using the symmetry of the curve about z = 0.