standard deviation

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standard deviation
Message posted by Carol on June 1, 2000 at 12:00 AM (ET)

What are some good real life examples of how standard deviation makes a difference in how you analyze data?

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Re: standard deviation
Message posted by nancy diehl on June 2, 2000 at 12:00 AM (ET)

Whenever you see polls reported on the news you always see at the bottom
the "Margin of Error". The margin of error is the standard deviation
multiplied by a confidence factor. So when I see a poll report preference
for one candidate is 42% and the other candidate is 45% with a margin
of error of 5%, this tells me that there is no difference between the
candidates. The 42% and 45% are merely estimates that come with some
variability (standard deviation). Hence, that 42% could be as much as 47%
if I were to take another poll.

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