What is standard deviation and why is it important?

What is standard deviation and why is it important?

Standard deviation is a measure of the amount of variation or dispersion in a set of values. It's important because it helps us understand how spread out the data points are from the mean.

Can you give me an example of how to calculate it?

Sure! To calculate standard deviation, first find the mean of your data set, then subtract the mean from each data point, square the result, find the average of those squared differences, and finally take the square root of that average.

What does a high standard deviation indicate?

A high standard deviation indicates that the data points are spread out over a wider range of values, meaning there is more variability in the data.

How does it differ from variance?

Variance is the average of the squared differences from the mean, while standard deviation is the square root of variance. Standard deviation provides a measure in the same units as the data.