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.(1 point)

1 answer

To calculate the standard deviation of the given data set (1, 1, 2, 3, 3), we will follow these steps:

  1. Calculate the mean (average): \[ \text{Mean} = \frac{\text{Sum of all responses}}{\text{Number of responses}} = \frac{1 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 3}{5} = \frac{10}{5} = 2 \]

  2. Calculate the variance: The variance is calculated as the average of the squared differences from the mean. \[ \text{Variance} = \frac{\sum (x_i - \text{mean})^2}{N} \] Where \(x_i\) are the individual responses and \(N\) is the number of responses.

    Calculating each squared difference:

    • For \(1\): \((1 - 2)^2 = (-1)^2 = 1\)
    • For \(1\): \((1 - 2)^2 = (-1)^2 = 1\)
    • For \(2\): \((2 - 2)^2 = (0)^2 = 0\)
    • For \(3\): \((3 - 2)^2 = (1)^2 = 1\)
    • For \(3\): \((3 - 2)^2 = (1)^2 = 1\)

    Now summing these squared differences: \[ 1 + 1 + 0 + 1 + 1 = 4 \]

    Now divide by the number of responses to get the variance: \[ \text{Variance} = \frac{4}{5} = 0.8 \]

  3. Calculate the standard deviation: The standard deviation is the square root of the variance. \[ \text{Standard Deviation} = \sqrt{\text{Variance}} = \sqrt{0.8} \approx 0.8944 \]

Thus, the standard deviation of the data is approximately 0.894.