select ten (10) states and calculate the mean and standard deviation for average insurance costs. Next, calculate the mean and standard deviation for average insurance costs for all 51 states. Compare and contrast the means and standard deviations for the ten (10) states you selected and all fifty one (51) states.

Question

The states I chose were:
New York -1,627
NJ- 1663
Hawaii - 1,707
Maryland - 1,807
New Mexico -1,896
Connecticut - 1,786
Georgia - 1,670
Colorado 1,508
West Virginia - 1,633
Florida -1,470
I know I need to add them up and than divide by ten, but where I am confused it about means, and etc from the question. If someone can explain how I find them I think I will be OK. Thank you and I sorry it is so long. Please forgive.

Answer 1

Mmmmhhh, as a Canadian, I always thought that the US had 50 states, but anyway ....

You must have data for the whole country, but I will give you the hints for the 10 sets of data you show. I will not do the arithmetic for you.

To get the mean, just add them up and divide by 10, you seem to have that
for the standard deviation, proceed this way:
form columns for each state:
state - difference between data and mean - square of that difference
I will do NY

NY ..... (1627 - mean) ..... (1627-mean)^2
...
Fl ...... (1470 - mean) ......( 170-mean)^2

now add up all the squares and divide by 10
then take the square root of that number

Notice that in the differences , some will be positive and some will be negative, but after we square them, they all become positive

Answer 2

Thank you so much Reiny,

I appreciate how you explained it to me.