The standard deviation is computed by:
A) squaring the sum of $ \frac{(x-\text { mean })^{2}}{N} $
B) deriving the square root of $ \frac{(x-\text { mean })^{2}}{N-1} $
C) deriving the square root of the average of $ \frac{(x-\text { mean })^{2}}{Y} $
D) deriving the square root of the sum of $ \frac{(x-\text { mean })^{2}}{N-1} $

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The standard deviation is calculated by taking the square root of the variance, which is the sum of squared deviations from the mean divided by the number of observations minus one (for a sample) or by the number of observations (for a population). Option D correctly describes the calculation for a sample standard deviation, using $N-1$ in the denominator to correct for bias in the estimation of the population variance from a sample.

The Standard Deviation Is Computed By: A) Squaring the Sum (x− mean )2N \frac{(x-\text { mean })^{2}}{N} N(x− mean )2​

The Standard Deviation Is Computed By:
A) Squaring the Sum $\frac{(x-\text { mean })^{2}}{N}$