Spread

What Spread is

Spread (or variability) is a measure of how the values of a data set are distributed around the average or mean value. It is an important concept in statistics because it helps to understand how the values in a data set vary from one another.

The following steps can be used to measure the spread of a data set:

  1. Calculate the mean or average value of the data set.

  2. Calculate the differences between each data value and the mean.

  3. Square each of the differences.

  4. Add the squared differences together.

  5. Divide the sum of the squared differences by the number of data values.

  6. Take the square root of the result. This is the measure of spread for the data set.

Examples

  1. Spread in statistics can refer to the degree of dispersion of a set of values around the mean.
  2. Spread can also refer to the range of values, from the lowest value to the highest value, within a set of data.
  3. Spread can also be used to measure the variability of a distribution, often referred to as the variance or standard deviation.

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