Discussion question
Standard Deviation the basic dispersion measure and is a very common data analysis parameter which shows variation in the data. The basic rule of thumb based on Standard Deviation is that an outlier is any point beyond 3 Standard Deviation of either side of the mean.
Class: There is a subtle difference between the sample and population variation (or standard deviation). How come that with sample we have to divide by N-1 instead of N? Can somebody explain in layman’s term with an example?
For a sample the function in Excel is STDEV and for a population, it is STDEVP
Otherwise, just go to Data Analysis under Tools in Excel and do a Descriptive Statistics on the sample or population data.
