Geckos are lizards with specialized toe pads that enable them to easily climb all sorts of surfaces. A research team examined the adhesive properties of 7 Tokay geckos. Following are the toe-pad areas (in square centimeters, cm²) for this sample:
5.6 4.9 6.0 5.1 5.5 5.1 7.5
Using the correct units, what is the value of the sample variance of toe-pad areas?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The sample variance is calculated using the formula for variance, which involves squaring the difference between each data point and the mean, then dividing by the number of data points minus one (n-1). The units of variance are the square of the units of the original data, so since the original data is in cm^2, the variance will be in cm^4. The correct numerical value is not provided, but the focus here is on understanding the correct units for the answer.

Geckos Are Lizards with Specialized Toe Pads That Enable Them