Leah asked five of her friends how many sports they play. She received the following responses: 1, 1, 2, 3, and 3. Calculate the standard deviation of the data. What is the stand deviation?

1 answer

To calculate the standard deviation of the data set consisting of the number of sports Leah's friends play (1, 1, 2, 3, 3), we will follow these steps:

  1. Calculate the mean (average) of the data set.
  2. Calculate the variance (the average of the squared differences from the mean).
  3. Calculate the standard deviation (the square root of the variance).

Step 1: Calculate the Mean

The mean \( \mu \) is calculated as follows:

\[ \mu = \frac{\text{sum of all data points}}{\text{number of data points}} \]

Calculating the sum:

\[ 1 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 3 = 10 \]

Number of data points \( n = 5 \).

So, the mean is:

\[ \mu = \frac{10}{5} = 2 \]

Step 2: Calculate the Variance

Next, we find the squared differences from the mean for each data point, then calculate the average of those squared differences.

  • For the first data point (1):

\[ (1 - 2)^2 = (-1)^2 = 1 \]

  • For the second data point (1):

\[ (1 - 2)^2 = (-1)^2 = 1 \]

  • For the third data point (2):

\[ (2 - 2)^2 = 0^2 = 0 \]

  • For the fourth data point (3):

\[ (3 - 2)^2 = (1)^2 = 1 \]

  • For the fifth data point (3):

\[ (3 - 2)^2 = (1)^2 = 1 \]

Now we can sum these squared differences:

\[ 1 + 1 + 0 + 1 + 1 = 4 \]

Now, we calculate the variance \( \sigma^2 \):

\[ \sigma^2 = \frac{\text{sum of squared differences}}{\text{number of data points}} = \frac{4}{5} = 0.8 \]

Step 3: Calculate the Standard Deviation

Finally, we calculate the standard deviation \( \sigma \):

\[ \sigma = \sqrt{\sigma^2} = \sqrt{0.8} \approx 0.8944 \]

Conclusion

The standard deviation of the data set is approximately 0.8944.