Question

Which data set has the smallest standard deviation?

A. 7, 8, 89, 1005, 23400, 5, 3
B. 1000, 1001, 1002, 1000, 1001, 1001
C. 55, 90, 34, 78, 15, 20, 19
D. 1, 9, 120, 9, 1, 1, 9

Answer 1

The answer would be B.

Standard deviation basically measures how spread out the values are. Without solving, you can easily tell which one among your choices have a smaller deviation. The closer the values are to each other the smaller the standard deviation. The values of choice B are the closest together, so you can assume that they have the smallest standard deviation.

Answer 2

Answer:

(B)1000, 1001, 1002, 1000, 1001, 1001

Explanation:

Standard deviation helps in  measuring how spread out the values actually are. Without solving for the standard deviation, the smallest standard deviation of the given data sets can be easily guessed.

The closer the values are to each other, the smaller is the standard deviation. From the given data sets, The values of choice B that are 1000, 1001, 1002, 1000, 1001, 1001 are the closest together and in rest of the options the data sets hare not close to each other, so one can assume that they have the smallest standard deviation.

Hence, option B is correct.