Omar recorded the number of hours he worked each week for a year. Below is a random sample that he took from his data: [tex]$13, 17, 9, 21$[/tex].

What is the standard deviation for the data?

Standard deviation:
[tex]$ s = \sqrt{\frac{(x_1 - \bar{x})^2 + (x_2 - \bar{x})^2 + \ldots + (x_n - \bar{x})^2}{n-1}} $[/tex]

A. 0
B. 4.4
C. 5.2
D. 26.7



Answer :

To find the standard deviation of Omar's sample data: [tex]\(13, 17, 9, 21\)[/tex], we will follow these steps.

1. Calculate the mean ([tex]\(\bar{x}\)[/tex]):
The mean is the average of all the numbers in the data set.
[tex]\[ \bar{x} = \frac{13 + 17 + 9 + 21}{4} = \frac{60}{4} = 15 \][/tex]

2. Calculate each deviation from the mean:
We subtract the mean from each number in the data set.
[tex]\[ \begin{align*} 13 - 15 &= -2 \\ 17 - 15 &= 2 \\ 9 - 15 &= -6 \\ 21 - 15 &= 6 \\ \end{align*} \][/tex]

3. Square each deviation:
Squaring each of the deviations calculated in the previous step.
[tex]\[ \begin{align*} (-2)^2 &= 4 \\ 2^2 &= 4 \\ (-6)^2 &= 36 \\ 6^2 &= 36 \\ \end{align*} \][/tex]

4. Calculate the variance ([tex]\(s^2\)[/tex]):
Variance is the average of these squared deviations. Since this is a sample, we divide by [tex]\(n - 1\)[/tex] (where [tex]\(n\)[/tex] is the number of data points).
[tex]\[ s^2 = \frac{4 + 4 + 36 + 36}{4 - 1}=\frac{80}{3}\approx 26.67 \][/tex]

5. Calculate the standard deviation ([tex]\(s\)[/tex]):
Standard deviation is the square root of the variance.
[tex]\[ s = \sqrt{26.67} \approx 5.16 \][/tex]

So, the standard deviation for Omar's data is approximately [tex]\(5.2\)[/tex].

Hence, the correct answer is:
[tex]\[ \boxed{5.2} \][/tex]