Mathematics lesson for Form 5 Students

Module: Descriptive Statistics:

Topic: Statistics
Lesson Title: Measures of Dispersion
Duration: 100mins

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Module: Descriptive Statistics
Chapter: Statistics
Lesson: Measures of Dispersion
(Variability)
Class: Form 5 Additional Maths

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Objectives of Lesson
At the end of this lesson you should be able
to:
• Calculate the deviations from the mean;
• Calculate the Variance and Standard
Deviation of a given Data set;
• Interpret the Value of Standard Deviation
obtained.

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 Motivation
In our first lesson, you learned about the mean, mode and
median for grouped and ungrouped data. At times these
measures are unable to give sufficient information for
worthwhile decisions to be taken about a data set.
The measures of dispersion come in which says how
dispersed or spread out the items of the distribution are.
While the mean will just give the arithmetic average, and
the mode tells you which variable is most occurring,
nothing is said on how the different values are closed to
the mean or to each other.

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Material needed for the lesson
For this lesson you need the following:
A ruler
A pencil
A Pen
A Calculator
A4 papers or your exercise book
NB: For each activity, you are expected to do it on
you own before looking at the answer.

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Plan of the Lesson
 Verification of pre-requisite;
 Calculating Variance and Standard Deviation for
ungrouped and grouped data;
 Application exercises;
 Summary;
 Examples of interpretation of SD

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Pre-requisite Knowledge
In the last lesson, you learned how to find
Mean, Mode and Median for grouped and
ungrouped data.
In the nest lesson, we need the mean in
the calculation of Variance then Standard
Deviation.

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Mean of Ungrouped Data

x 1 2 3 4 5 6
f 15 22 30 25 13 10

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Mean of grouped Data
1. The marks obtained by 70 students in a test
were recorded as in the table below:
Marks x 1-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 61-70 71-80 81-90

Freq f 3 5 9 14 12 9 7 6 5

a)State the modal class

b) Find the mean mark correct to 1 decimal place.

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 Answer

x 1-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 61-70 71-80 81-90

midmark 5.5 15.5 25.5 35.5 45.5 55.5 65.5 75.5 85.5
f 3 5 9 14 12 9 7 6 5
xf 16.5 77.5 229.5 497 546 499.5 458.5 453 427.5

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Learning Activity 1
1. Consider a data set given as on the table below:
x 2 4 5 6 7 8 9 11
f 3 6 2 1 5 6 4 1

a)Find the difference between the largest and the smallest mark.

Answer:
The difference is 11 – 2 = 9.
This difference is called the Range
It gives just the difference between the highest and the lowest mark

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Calculating Variance and Standard Deviation
for ungrouped and grouped data.

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Learning Activity 2a
1. Find the mean of the numbers 4, 5, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12,
14, 15, 16.
2. How many values are there?
3. Square the mean obtained in 1)
4. Square each of the numbers of the data set
5. Add up all the values obtained in 4). Divide this
sum by the number of values obtained in 2)
6. Subtract the square of the mean from the answer
obtained in 5)
7. Find the square root.

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Solution to activity 2a

x 4 5 5 6 8 9 12 14 15 16
16 25 25 36 64 81 144 196 225 256

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Learning Activity 2b
1. Find the mean of the numbers 4, 5, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12,
14, 15, 16.
2. Find the difference of each number from the
mean (Deviations from the mean) make it a
second row on a table
3. Square each of these deviations and make it a 3rd
row on the table.
4. Find the mean of the sum of the squared
deviations.
5. Find the square root

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 Solution to activity 2b

x 4 5 5 6 8 9 12 14 15 16

-5.4 -4.4 -4.4 -3.4 -1.4 -0.4 2.6 4.6 6.6 7.6

29.16 19.36 19.36 11.56 1.96 0.16 6.76 21.16 31.36 43.56

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Summary of activity 2

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Solution to Activity cont

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 Application Exercise
x 8-12 13-17 18-22 23-27 28-32
f 6 8 2 8 6

x 8-12 13-17 18-22 23-27 28-32

midpoint 10 15 20 25 30
f 6 8 2 8 6

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Solution Cont

classes 8-12 13-17 18-22 23-27 28-32

Midpoint x 10 15 20 25 30
-10 -5 0 5 10
100 25 0 25 100
600 500 0 200 600

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Summary

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Interpreting the value of the
SDStandard Deviation takes into account all the data
The
like the mean. It is the most widely used measure of
dispersion.
Standard deviation looks at how spread out a group of
numbers is from the mean, by looking at the square
root of the variance.
The variance measures the average degree to which
each point differs from the mean—the average of all
data points

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Interpretation Cont.
Standard deviation can be difficult to interpret as a
single number on its own. Basically, a small standard
deviation means that the values in a statistical data set
are close to the mean of the data set, on average, and a
large standard deviation means that the values in the
data set are farther away from the mean, on average.
The standard deviation measures how concentrated the
data are around the mean; the more concentrated, the
smaller the standard deviation.

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Examples of interpretation of
SDIn a car manufacturing industry, a certain car
1.
part has to be 3cm in diameter so as to fit
properly. If during the manufacturing process,
it is discovered that the SD for the diameter of
this particular parts produced is large. Then
the process has to stop for readjustment.
Because with a large SD most of the parts will
not fit properly or will not fit at all.

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Example Cont.

2. In some situations, SD just gives

information on how spread apart the data in
a given data set are. In most organizations,
the SD for salaries of workers might be high
because we have very low salaries for
cleaners and very high salaries for the PCEO.

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 Properties of Standard
•Deviation
Standard Deviation can never be negative;
• The smallest possible value for SD is 0. This
happens when every single number in the data
set is exactly the same (no deviations);
• The Standard Deviation is affected by extremely
low and extremely high numbers in the data set;
• Standard deviation has the same unit as the
original data;

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Home work
1. The gain in mass expressed in kg for 100pigs was recorded as on the table below:

Gain in kg 5-9 10-14 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34

f 2 29 37 16 14 2
a) State the Modal class
b) Find the median correct to 2 decimal places.
c) Calculate the mean gain in kg correct to 2 decimal places.
d) Calculate the Variance and the Standard Deviation for the data set, each correct to
2 decimal places.

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Home work cont
2. The marks obtained by 200 students in a test were recorded as on the table
below:
Marks x 10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89 90-99
f 10 18 20 30 49 46 20 5 2

a) State the Modal class

b) How many students had less than 50?
c) Find the mean mark for these students and the median mark ( 2 dp).
d) Calculate the Variance and Standard Deviation for these marks
marks.(2dp).

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Home work Cont.
3. The ages of people at a youth club were recorded as:
14, 15, 14, 16, 14, 14, 15, 17, 15, 18, 14, 15, 15, 16, 15, 16, 15,
14, 13, 15. Find the mean and the Standard Deviation.
4. The number of eggs collected each day over a period of 21
days by a poultry owner is: 16, 17, 18, 16, 15, 18, 16, 18, 16, 15,
16, 14, 17, 16, 18, 17, 15, 17, 16, 17, 15.
i) Find the modal number of eggs collected each day.
ii) Find to the nearest whole number the mean number of
eggs collected each day.
iii) Calculate the standard deviation of the number of eggs
collected each day (give answer to 2 decimal places).

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Answers to Homework
1.
a) Modal Class 15 – 19 b) Median = 17.07 correct to 2 decimal places
c) Mean = 17.85 correct to 2 decimal places;
d) Variance = 31.03 correct to 2 decimal places;
SD = 5.57 correct to 2 decimal places
2.
a) Modal Class 50 -59;
b) 78 Students ;
c) Mean = 51.75; Median = 53.98
d) Variance = 309.94; SD = 17.61
3.
a) Mean = 15; Standard Deviation = 1.14 correct to 2 decimal places.
4.
a) Mode = 16 eggs; Mean = 16 eggs, SD= 1.17

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References
1. Integrated Core Approach, Ordinary Level Mathematics, Third
Edition, Piankeh Albert, Mbosso Publishers Bamenda;
2. Mathematics 9, M.J. Tipler, J Douglas (2004),Nelson Thornes
Ltd;
3. Additional Mathematics, An Integrated Core Approach, Second
Edition, Piankeh Albert, Mbosso Publishers Bamenda

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THANKS VERY MUCH AND GOOD
LUCK IN YOUR STUDIES

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