Exploring Data Analysis: Standard Deviation

Which data set has the smallest standard deviation?

A. 7, 8, 89, 1005, 23400, 5, 3

B. 1000, 1001, 1002, 1000, 1001, 1001

C. 55, 90, 34, 78, 15, 20, 19

D. 1, 9, 120, 9, 1, 1, 9

The answer would be B.

Standard deviation basically measures how spread out the values are. Without solving, you can easily tell which one among your choices have a smaller deviation. The closer the values are to each other the smaller the standard deviation. The values of choice B are the closest together, so you can assume that they have the smallest standard deviation.

Which data set has the smallest standard deviation?

The data set with the smallest standard deviation is B. The values of 1000, 1001, 1002, 1000, 1001, 1001 are closest together compared to the other options.