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Measures of Dispersion Range

This document discusses three measures of dispersion: range, interquartile range, and standard deviation. Range is defined as the difference between the maximum and minimum values and is easy to calculate but sensitive to outliers. Interquartile range is the difference between the first and third quartiles and is suitable for skewed distributions but not amenable to mathematical manipulation. Standard deviation uses the mean and deviations of all values and can detect skewness but is complex to compute and influenced by outliers.

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Yeong Zi Ying
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24 views

Measures of Dispersion Range

This document discusses three measures of dispersion: range, interquartile range, and standard deviation. Range is defined as the difference between the maximum and minimum values and is easy to calculate but sensitive to outliers. Interquartile range is the difference between the first and third quartiles and is suitable for skewed distributions but not amenable to mathematical manipulation. Standard deviation uses the mean and deviations of all values and can detect skewness but is complex to compute and influenced by outliers.

Uploaded by

Yeong Zi Ying
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Measures of Dispersion

Range
-the simplest method of measurement of dispersion and defines the difference between the
largest and the smallest item in a given distribution.  The formula of range is as shown:
Range = Maximum value - minimum value
Advantages: Very easy to calculate. 
Disadvantages:
-Very sensitive to outliers
-Does not use all observations in the data resulting in failing to give any idea of the distribution.

Interquartile range
-the difference between 25th percentile (1st quartile) and 75th percentile (3rd quartile). The
formula of interquartile range is as shown below:
       Interquartile range = Q₃-Q₁
Advantages:
-If the interquartile range is small it means that the middle observations are close to each other
and vice versa,
-Suitable for open-ended distributions
-Very suitable is highly skewed distribution as it is not affected by extreme values
DIsadvantages:
-Not amenable mathematical manipulation
-Varies widely from sample to sample even if it is in the same population.

Standard deviation,σ
-The positive square root of the arithmetic mean of the squares of the deviations of the given
values from their arithmetic mean.
-The sum of the deviations as a measure of dispersion for a set of data is not suitable as it is
always 0. 
-There are two formulas for standard deviation which are standard deviation for population and
sample.
If the set of data x₁, x₂, x₃, ...is the population with mean of , then the standard deviation of the
population is  σ=(x-)²n
If the set of data x₁, x₂, x₃, ...is the sample with mean x ， of then standard deviation of the
sample is  s=(x-x)²n-1
Advantages:
-Can detect skewness of the graph
-Can be rigidly defined
-Very rare to be affected by sampling fluctuations
-Suitable  for algebraic operations
Disadvantages:
-It is a complex method to compute compared to others
-Highly influenced by extreme values.  

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