MIDTERM LESSONS

Submitted by: ROSETE, ELEISHA MYJE R.

Submitted to: Sir Alfonsus Lagazon
Measures of Variability
 MEASURES OF VARIABILITY
• A measure of variability is a summary statistic that represents
the amount of dispersion in a dataset. While a measure of
central tendency describes the typical value, measures of
variability define how far away the data points tend to fall from
the center. We talk about variability in the context of a
distribution of values. A low dispersion indicates that the data
points tend to be clustered tightly around the center. High
dispersion signifies that they tend to fall further away.
• In statistics, variability, dispersion, and spread are
synonyms that denote the width of the distribution. Just as
there are multiple measures of central tendency, there are
several measures of variability. The most common
measures of variability is the range, interquartile range,
variance, and standard deviation.
Range
 Data set Data set
1 2
• The range of a dataset is the 20 11
difference between the largest
and smallest values in that 21 16
dataset. For example, in the two 22 19
datasets on the right, dataset 1 25 23
has a range of 20 – 38 = 18 26 25
while dataset 2 has a range of 29 32
11 – 52 = 41. Dataset 2 has a
wider range and, hence, more 33 39
variability than dataset 1. 34 46
38 52
THE INTERQUARTILE RANGE
(IQR)
• The interquartile range is the middle half of the data. To

visualize it, think about the median value that splits the

dataset in half. Similarly, you can divide the data into

quarters. Statisticians refer to these quarters as

quartiles and denote them from low to high as Q1, Q2,

Q3, and Q4.

• The lowest quartile (Q1) contains the quarter of the
dataset with the smallest values. The upper quartile
(Q4) contains the quarter of the dataset with the
highest values. The interquartile range is the middle
half of the data that is in between the upper and lower
quartiles. In other words, the interquartile range
includes the 50% of data points that fall in Q2 and Q3.
THE IQR IS THE RED AREA IN THE GRAPH BELOW.
• The interquartile range is a robust measure of
variability in a similar manner that the median is a
robust measure of central tendency. Neither measure
is influenced dramatically by outliers because they
don’t depend on every value.
• Additionally, the interquartile range is excellent
for skewed distributions, just like the median. As
you’ll learn, when you have a normal distribution, the
standard deviation tells you the percentage of
observations that fall specific distances from the
mean. However, this doesn’t work for skewed
distributions, and the IQR is a great alternative.
VARIANCE
• Variance is the average squared difference of the values from

the mean. Unlike the previous measures of variability, the

variance includes all values in the calculation by comparing

each value to the mean. To calculate this statistic, you calculate

a set of squared differences between the data points and the

mean, sum them, and then divide by the number of

observations. Hence, it’s the average squared difference.

There are two formulas for the variance depending on whether you are
calculating the variance for an entire population or using a sample
to estimate the population variance. The equations are below:

• Population variance: The formula for the variance of an entire

population is the following;

In the equation, σ2 is the

𝚺(𝒙−𝝁)𝟐
𝝈𝟐 = population parameter for the variance, μ is
𝚴 the parameter for the population mean, and
N is the number of data points, which
should include the entire
• Sample Variance: To use a sample to estimate the variance for a
population, use the following formula. Using the previous equation
with sample data tends to underestimate the variability. Because it’s
usually impossible to measure an entire population, statisticians use
the equation for sample variances much more frequently.

𝟐 In the equation, s2 is the sample

𝚺(𝐗 − 𝐌)
𝒔𝟐 = variance, and M is the sample
𝚴−𝟏 mean. N-1 in the denominator
corrects for the tendency of a
sample to underestimate the
population variance.
EXAMPLE OF CALCULATING THE SAMPLE VARIANCE

The numbers in parentheses represent the

corresponding table column number. The procedure
involves taking each observation (1), subtracting the
sample mean (2) to calculate the difference (3), and
squaring that difference (4). Then, I sum the squared
differences at the bottom of the table. Finally, I take
the sum and divide by 16 because I’m using the
sample variance equation with 17 observations (17 –
1 = 16). The variance for this dataset is 201.

Because the calculations use the squared

differences, the variance is in squared units rather
the original units of the data. While higher values of
the variance indicate greater variability, there is no
intuitive interpretation for specific values. Despite
this limitation, various statistical tests use the
variance in their calculations.
Standard Deviation
• The standard deviation is the standard or typical
difference between each data point and the
mean. When the values in a dataset are grouped
closer together, you have a smaller standard
deviation. On the other hand, when the values
are spread out more, the standard deviation is
larger because the standard distance is greater.
• Conveniently, the standard deviation uses the original
units of the data, which makes interpretation easier.
Consequently, the standard deviation is the most
widely used measure of variability. The standard
deviation is just the square root of the variance. Recall
that the variance is in squared units. Hence, the
square root returns the value to the natural units. The
symbol for the standard deviation as a population
parameter is σ while s represents it as a sample
estimate. To calculate the standard deviation, calculate
the variance, and then take the square root of it.
• In the variance section, we calculated a variance of 201 in the table.

𝟐𝟎𝟏 = 14.177 ⟶ Therefore,

the standard deviation for that
dataset is 14.177
MEASURES OF POSITION
• A measure of position is a method by which the position

that a particular data value has within a given data set can

be identified. As with other types of measures, there is

more than one approach to defining such a measure.

Percentiles
• Assume that the elements in a data set are rank

ordered from the smallest to the largest. The values

that divide a rank-ordered set of elements into 100

equal parts are called percentiles.

• An element having a percentile rank of Pi would
have a greater value than i percent of all the
elements in the set. Thus, the observation at
the 50th percentile would be denoted P50, and it
would be greater than 50 percent of the
observations in the set. An observation at the
50th percentile would correspond to
the median value in the set.
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.
 THE CHART BELOW SHOWS A SET OF FOUR
NUMBERS DIVIDED INTO QUARTILES.

Note the relationship between quartiles and

percentiles. Q1 corresponds to P25, Q2 corresponds to
P50, Q3 corresponds to P75. Q2 is the median value in
the set.
STANDARD SCORES (Z-SCORES)
• A standard score (aka, a z-score) indicates how
many standard deviations an element is from the
mean. A standard score can be calculated from the
following formula.

where z is the z-score, X is the value

z = (X - μ) / σ of the element, μ is the mean of the
population, and σ is the standard
deviation.
• Here is how to interpret z-scores.
• A z-score less than 0 represents an element less than the
mean.
• A z-score greater than 0 represents an element greater than
the mean.
• A z-score equal to 0 represents an element equal to the mean.
• A z-score equal to 1 represents an element that is 1 standard
deviation greater than the mean; a z-score equal to 2, 2
standard deviations greater than the mean; etc.
• A z-score equal to -1 represents an element that is 1 standard
deviation less than the mean; a z-score equal to -2, 2 standard
deviations less than the mean; etc.
SAMPLE COMPUTATION

• Problem 1

• A national achievement test is administered annually to 3rd

graders. The test has a mean score of 100 and a standard
deviation of 15. If Jane's z-score is 1.20, what was her score on
the test?

(A) 82 (B) 88 (C) 100 (D) 112 (E) 118

 SOLUTION
• The correct answer is (E). From the z-score equation, we know

• z = (X - μ) / σ
• where z is the z-score, X is the value of the element, μ is the
mean of the population, and σ is the standard deviation.

Solving for Jane's test score (X), we get :

X = ( z * σ) + 100 = ( 1.20 * 15) + 100 = 18 + 100 = 118

MEASURES OF SHAPE
Skewness
 SKEWNESS
• Tells you the amount and direction of skew (departure
from horizontal symmetry). The first thing you usually notice
about a distribution’s shape is whether it has one mode
(peak) or more than one. If It’s unimodal (has just one peak),
like most data sets, the next thing you notice is whether
it’s symmetric or skewed to one side. If the bulk of the data
is at the left and the right tail is longer, we say that the
distribution is skewed right or positively skewed; if the
peak is toward the right and the left tail is longer, we say that
the distribution is skewed left or negatively skewed.
LOOK AT THE TWO GRAPHS BELOW. THEY BOTH
HAVE Μ = 0.6923 AND Σ = 0.1685, BUT THEIR
SHAPES ARE DIFFERENT.
• The first one is moderately skewed left: the left tail is
longer and most of the distribution is at the right. By
contrast, the second distribution is moderately skewed
right: its right tail is longer and most of the distribution is
at the left.
• You may remember that the mean and standard
deviation have the same units as the original data, and
the variance has the square of those units. However,
the skewness has no units: it’s a pure number, like a z-
score.
 COMPUTATION :
The moment coefficient of skewness of a data set is

skewness: g1 = m3 / m23/2
where: m3 = ∑(x−x̅)3 / n and m2 = ∑(x−x̅)2 / n

x̅ is the mean and n is the sample size, as usual. m3 is

called the third moment of the data set. m2 is
the variance, the square of the standard deviation.
• The skewness can also be computed as
g1 = the average value of z3, where z is the
familiar z-score, z = (x−x̅)/σ. Of course the
average value of z is always zero, but what
about the average of z3? Suppose you have a
few points far to the left of the mean, and a lot
of points less far to the right of the mean. Since
cubing the deviations gives the big ones even
greater weight, you’ll have negative skewness.
It works just the opposite if you have big
deviations to the right of the mean.
• You’ll remember that you have to compute the variance
and standard deviation slightly differently, depending on
whether you have data for the whole population or just a
sample. The same is true of skewness. If you have the
whole population, then g1 above is the measure of
skewness. But if you have just a sample, you need
the sample skewness:

• sample skewness:
• Example 1: College Men’s Heights

Here are grouped data for heights of

100 randomly selected male
students.

A histogram shows that the data are skewed left, not

symmetric.
But how highly skewed are they, compared to other
data sets? To answer this question, you have to
compute the skewness.
• Begin with the sample size and sample mean.
(The sample size was given, but it never hurts to
check.)

• n = 5+18+42+27+8 = 100
• x̅ = (61×5 + 64×18 + 67×42 + 70×27 + 73×8) ÷
100
• x̅ = 9305 + 1152 + 2814 + 1890 + 584) ÷ 100
• x̅ = 6745÷100 = 67.45
• Now, with the mean in hand, you can compute the
skewness. (Of course in real life you’d probably use
Excel or a statistics package, but it’s good to know
where the numbers come from.)
• Finally, the skewness is

• g1 = m3 / m23/2 = −2.6933 / 8.52753/2 = −0.1082

• That would be the skewness if you had data for the whole
population. But obviously there are more than 100 male
students in the world, or even in almost any school, so what
you have here is a sample, not the population. You must
compute the sample.
• skewness:
 INTERPRETING:
• If skewness is positive, the data are positively
skewed or skewed right, meaning that the right
tail of the distribution is longer than the left. If
skewness is negative, the data are negatively
skewed or skewed left, meaning that the left tail
is longer.
• If skewness = 0, the data are perfectly symmetrical. But a
skewness of exactly zero is quite unlikely for real-world data,
so how can you interpret the skewness number?
• If skewness is less than −1 or greater than +1, the distribution
is highly skewed.
• If skewness is between −1 and −½ or between +½ and +1, the
distribution is moderately skewed.
• If skewness is between −½ and +½, the distribution
is approximately symmetric.
• With a skewness of −0.1098, the sample data for student
heights are approximately symmetric.
KURTOSIS
 KURTOSIS
• Tells you how tall and sharp the central peak is, relative to a
standard bell curve. As skewness involves the third moment of the
distribution, kurtosis involves the fourth moment. The outliers in a
sample, therefore, have even more effect on the kurtosis than they do
on the skewness and in a symmetric distribution both tails increase
the kurtosis, unlike skewness where they offset each other.
• You may remember that the mean and standard deviation have the
same units as the original data, and the variance has the square of
those units. However, the kurtosis, like skewness, has no units: it’s a
pure number, like a z-score.
• Traditionally, kurtosis has been explained in terms of the central
peak.
 COMPUTATION:

• The moment coefficient of kurtosis of a data set is computed

almost the same way as the coefficient of skewness: just
change the exponent 3 to 4 in the formulas:
• kurtosis: a4 = m4 / m22 and excess kurtosis: g2 = a4−3
• where:

m4 = ∑(x−x̅)4 / n and m2 = ∑(x−x̅)2 / n

• Again, the excess kurtosis is generally used because the excess kurtosis
of a normal distribution is 0. x̅ is the mean and n is the sample size, as
usual. m4 is called the fourth moment of the data set. m 2 is
the variance, the square of the standard deviation.
• The kurtosis can also be computed as a 4 = the average value of z 4,
where z is the familiar z-score, z = (x−x̅)/σ. Of course the average value
of z is always zero, but the average value of z 4 is always ≥ 1, and is
larger when you have a few big deviations on either side of the mean
than when you have a lot of small ones.
• Just as with variance, standard deviation, and skewness, the above is
the final computation of kurtosis if you have data for the whole
population. But if you have data for only a sample, you have to
compute the sample excess kurtosis using this formula:

• sample excess kurtosis:

 EXAMPLE
• Let’s continue with the example of the college men’s heights,
and compute the kurtosis of the data set.
n = 100, x̅ = 67.45 inches, and the variance m2 = 8.5275 in²
were computed earlier.
• Finally, the kurtosis is
• a4 = m4 / m2² = 199.3760/8.5275² = 2.7418

• and the excess kurtosis is

g2 = 2.7418−3 = −0.2582

• But this is a sample, not the population, so you have to compute the
sample excess kurtosis:
G2 = [99/(98×97)] [101×(−0.2582)+6)] = −0.2091

• This sample is slightly platykurtic: its peak is just a bit shallower than
the peak of a normal distribution.
THE END