What is the variance of {12, 6, 7, 0, 3, -12}?
1 Answer
Feb 16, 2016
Population variance:
Sample variance:
Explanation:
To calculate the variance:
- Calculate the arithmetic average (the mean)
- For each data value square the difference between that data value and the mean
- Calculate the sum of the squared differences
If your data represents the entire population:
4. Divide the sum of the squared differences by the number of data values to get the population variance
If your data represents only a sample taken from a larger population
4. Divide the sum of the squared differences by 1 less than the number of data values to get the sample variance
