opinion of standard deviation

[WalterMitty]

discuss

[7,052,770]

WTF kind of question is this?

[WalterMitty]

WTF kind of question is this?

self explanatory, harry.

[© tweed]

write-in 940 heads and 60 tails

[President Tyrion]

Anyone who thinks the standard deviation is not useful just hasn't been exposed to enough statistics.

Simply put, that's like asking if an electron microscope is useful for microbiologists, or the whether the LHC is useful for particle physicists. Not knowing how to use something is no excuse for calling it useless.

[WalterMitty]

Anyone who thinks the standard deviation is not useful just hasn't been exposed to enough statistics.

Simply put, that's like asking if an electron microscope is useful for microbiologists, or the whether the LHC is useful for particle physicists. Not knowing how to use something is no excuse for calling it useless.

good point.

i wonder how many people understand standard deviation?  probably less than 50% of the general public.

[kcguy]

i wonder how many people understand standard deviation?  probably less than 50% of the general public.

. . .Give or take 49%.


Actually, I don't completely understand it.  I know that something like 2/3 of the population is within one standard deviation of the mean, 85% for 2 standard deviations, and 95% for 3 standard deviations.  (And even those numbers, I'm pulling out of my head without a lot of confidence.)

And I only have a vague idea of how it's calculated.  I have a researcher friend who does statistical analysis as part of his job--and he uses terms I don't understand--but I doubt anyone else I know has much reason to ever calculate a standard deviation.

[WalterMitty]

to be precise, i think 80% is within 1.28 sd

[Franzl]

If you assume normal distribution, which isn't necessarily a valid assumption. Although all sums of independent, identically distrubted variables converge to a normal distribution with an increasing n.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Cycles and bell curves make the world go round!

[muon2]

i wonder how many people understand standard deviation?  probably less than 50% of the general public.

. . .Give or take 49%.


Actually, I don't completely understand it.  I know that something like 2/3 of the population is within one standard deviation of the mean, 85% for 2 standard deviations, and 95% for 3 standard deviations.  (And even those numbers, I'm pulling out of my head without a lot of confidence.)

And I only have a vague idea of how it's calculated.  I have a researcher friend who does statistical analysis as part of his job--and he uses terms I don't understand--but I doubt anyone else I know has much reason to ever calculate a standard deviation.

This is one reason why the Common Core math standards include a healthy amount of statistics. The information age puts a premium on statistical analysis, but our K-12 education covered little since it wasn't as critical 50 years ago. A generation from now statistics should be as routine as algebra is today - that is not everyone is fluent in its practice, but people will recognize basic terms.

[JerryArkansas]

From someone in AP Stat, it is great and all should know what it is.

[politicallefty]

This is one reason why the Common Core math standards include a healthy amount of statistics. The information age puts a premium on statistical analysis, but our K-12 education covered little since it wasn't as critical 50 years ago. A generation from now statistics should be as routine as algebra is today - that is not everyone is fluent in its practice, but people will recognize basic terms.

I graduated high school in 2005 and statistics was barely covered at all in any math class I took. It was only offered as an elective class and I don't even think it was a full credit. In fact, the school district only required three credits of math for graduation at the time. I took a statistics class in college and it was definitely one of the more enjoyable math classes I took.

I definitely agree with you that statistics should be part of the K-12 curriculum. It's at least as valuable as algebra and certainly more valuable for most than anything beyond that.

[Gustaf]

It's a very important tool for statistical analysis and it is a part of important basic concepts that I think everyone needs to know in life.

[Simfan34]

As an economics student it is crucial to basic analysis and a key part of statistics. everyone sshould be familiar with it.

[MalaspinaGold]

Z-SCORES!!!

[President Tyrion]

Yeah, I pushed pretty hard to have statistics be part of the base curriculum in Atlasia, and I certainly think that it should be emphasized more greatly in real life.

[⛄]

So much better than variance.

[PiMp DaDdy FitzGerald]

Statistically it is useless.