Standard_Deviation

back to [[Statistical Dispersion]]

The '''standard deviation''' is the most commonly used measure of dispersion which is measured with the same units as the data. It is easily calculated as the square root of the [[Variance]]. It can never be a negative number since we always use the positive square root. When any method of calculating the standard deviation results in a negative number, we know that there has been an error, often due to a weak [[statistical algorithm]].
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[[Dick Beldin]]