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Thread: standard deviation

  1. #1

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    standard deviation

    i have 11 numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 and i want to know if there any formula that will show me which group of numbers the upper from the middle or the under of the middle has more posibilities

    i search with the standard deviation but still this i want is not clear
    any idea?
    memas
    thank you

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    Re: standard deviation

    What do you mean by "has more possibilities?"

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    Re: standard deviation

    Also, what do you mean by "the upper from the middle" or "the under of the middle"? An example would probably be very helpful.
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    Re: standard deviation

    example
    if we have two groups of students the group A and the group B
    we give the same test to examine them
    we give them values for their studies according to a scale of 20

    and the numbers for the group A are
    17,18,20,14,16,14,18,17,13,17,12,19,13,17,15,19,14,16,17,18,17
    group B
    20,17,19,15,17,19,16,20,15,17,10,14,9,17,9,20,17,16,20,16,17


    in both groups
    the major value is the same 17 and the frequency 16,75
    the middle is the same 16,75
    the mathematical average is the same 16,24


    which group has the best result? the A or B and why?
    thank you
    memas

  5. #5
    Only Slightly Obsessive jemidiah's Avatar
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    Re: standard deviation

    I don't know what you mean by "major value" and "frequency". I sorted the groups for convenience and found the mean (average), median (middle value), and mode (most repeated value) for both:

    Group A
    12,13,13,14,14,14,15,16,16,17,17,17,17,17,17,18,18,18,19,19,20
    median=17
    mode=17
    mean=341/21 = 16.2381...

    Group B
    9,9,10,14,15,15,16,16,16,17,17,17,17,17,17,19,19,20,20,20,20
    median=17
    mode=17
    mean=340/21 = 16.1905...

    Since Group A has a higher mean than group B (which doesn't agree with what you said but I did double check the result) I would say Group A outperformed Group B.

    In general, I would say the group with the higher mean does better, since then if you gave the same test to a random pair of people, one person from each group, and the pair performed according to their results above, the group with the higher mean score would win the head-to-head competition more often than the other group, when you weight a "win" according to how much the scores differ. If the means are equal, in a head-to-head competition the two groups would win equal amounts of the time--they would tie.

    For instance, if a person from Group A got a 17 and a person from Group B got a 9, Group A would win by a factor of 8. If a person from Group A instead got a 12 and a person from Group B got a 9, Group A would win by a factor of only 3. If you consider all possible pairs of people and add up the win/lose factor of each, the group with the higher mean will end up with a positive "win" factor.

    However, there are other valid ways to figure out which group should "win". For instance, you might value people who scored very well more than people who scored poorly--say the low scorers will be expelled from the school. In that case, the mean isn't the best thing to use.
    Last edited by jemidiah; Jul 29th, 2010 at 05:29 PM.
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  6. #6

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    Re: standard deviation

    thank you very much
    can you tell me if there a professional site for statistics that i can register asking all the questions that
    need , i am music composer and i fixed a programe that helps me to compose better and i need help about the formulas of statistics
    thank you
    memas

  7. #7
    Only Slightly Obsessive jemidiah's Avatar
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    Re: standard deviation

    I don't know of one, sorry. You might try getting a book on basic statistics. Good luck.
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    Re: standard deviation

    in this example in the first datagrid the winner was a sum that was lower than the 14,47.....13

    in the second datagrid the winner was a sum higher than the mean of the variable 16,74.....22

    i want to know if theses datagrids show the reason why in the first datagrid the result 13 was lower than the mean 14
    and in the second the result was higher than the mean 17...22

    thank you memas






    1471sml originale 471big
    N Valid 134 268 134
    Missing 134 0 134
    Mean 10,85 14,47 18,09
    Std. Error of Mean ,215 ,271 ,226
    Median 11,00 14,00 18,00
    Mode 12 12a 17
    Std. Deviation 2,488 4,433 2,620
    Variance 6,188 19,651 6,864
    Skewness -,746 ,051 ,729
    Std. Error of Skewness ,209 ,149 ,209
    Kurtosis -,166 -,430 ,153
    Std. Error of Kurtosis ,416 ,297 ,416
    Range 10 22 12
    Minimum 4 4 14
    Maximum 14 26 26
    Sum 1454 3878 2424
    Percentiles 25 9,00 11,00 16,00
    50 11,00 14,00 18,00
    75 13,00 18,00 20,00








    small originale big
    N Valid 134 268 134
    Missing 134 0 134
    Mean 12,84 16,74 20,63
    Std. Error of Mean ,226 ,291 ,248
    Median 13,00 17,00 20,00
    Mode 16 16 18
    Std. Deviation 2,621 4,772 2,875
    Variance 6,870 22,770 8,264
    Skewness -,526 ,104 ,667
    Std. Error of Skewness ,209 ,149 ,209
    Kurtosis -,654 -,549 -,166
    Std. Error of Kurtosis ,416 ,297 ,416
    Range 11 23 12
    Minimum 6 6 17
    Maximum 17 29 29
    Sum 1721 4486 2765
    Percentiles 25 11,00 13,00 18,00
    50 13,00 17,00 20,00
    75 15,00 20,00 23,00

  9. #9
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    Re: standard deviation

    I'm sorry, I have no idea what you're trying to ask. You'll have to be clearer.
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  10. #10

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    Re: standard deviation

    example we have two football teams and the numbers that the variables have are the numbers that i gave them according to their technique
    is it possible to know which group will have the most posibilities to win and why
    the group A that his numbers are lower than the mean or the group B that their numbers are higher than the mean
    thank you






    N Valid 268
    Missing 0
    Mean 14,47
    Std. Error of Mean ,271
    Median 14,00
    Mode 12a
    Std. Deviation 4,433
    Variance 19,651
    Skewness ,051
    Std. Error of Skewness ,149
    Kurtosis -,430
    Std. Error of Kurtosis ,297
    Range 22
    Minimum 4
    Maximum 26
    Sum 3878
    Percentiles 25 11,00
    50 14,00
    75 18,00





    N Valid 268
    Missing 0
    Mean 16,74
    Std. Error of Mean ,291
    Median 17,00
    Mode 16
    Std. Deviation 4,772
    Variance 22,770
    Skewness ,104
    Std. Error of Skewness ,149
    Kurtosis -,549
    Std. Error of Kurtosis ,297
    Range 23
    Minimum 6
    Maximum 29
    Sum 4486
    Percentiles 25 13,00
    50 17,00
    75 20,00

  11. #11
    Only Slightly Obsessive jemidiah's Avatar
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    Re: standard deviation

    I'm gonna say that the statistics you've shown are for, say, number of points earned per game for two given teams [using American football, since the scores are near 20]. In that case, you actually can't tell with certainty which team would win more often even assuming over a sufficiently long period of time the two teams would perform exactly according to the statistics given. For instance, one team could have very low scoring games on average and the other could have high scoring games, and you couldn't tell without a much more detailed analysis what might happen when the two play each other.

    So, no, it is not "possible to know which group will have the most pos[s]ibilities to win". However, it's probably a decent bet to just say the team with the higher average will outperform the team with the lower average.

    The situation changes drastically when a win by a large margin is "worth more" than a win by a small margin, and you just track winning amounts instead of absolute scores. This is the situation I described in post #5.
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  12. #12

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    Re: standard deviation

    thank you for your help
    but i want to ask what are the analysis that we need instead to tell which group is better and why

  13. #13
    Only Slightly Obsessive jemidiah's Avatar
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    Re: standard deviation

    It depends entirely on your application. If the groups are football teams and "better" means winning by a higher margin in a long tournament, all you need is the (true) mean winning margin between all teams.

    It would probably be much faster and more useful if you just (clearly) explained your application.... So far most of your questions are so general they have no answer.
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  14. #14

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    Re: standard deviation

    lets put it this way the groups are football teams and i want to know which group has the most posibilities to win
    1...what analysis has to do instead to have the correct answer?
    2...how accurate the statistic result could be?
    thank you memas

  15. #15
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    Re: standard deviation

    I'm sorry, you haven't answered my previous question. In particular, you haven't said what the situation is--are your football teams playing each other in a long (or short?) tournament with (or without?) elimination? There are too many unanswered questions.

    You can't just "throw statistics" at a problem and hope an answer comes out from the gods of math. Math is just reasoning with clear assumptions. Unfortunately, you haven't been clear, so math has no answer to your questions.
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  16. #16

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    Re: standard deviation

    the groups are football teams and i want to know which group has the most posibilities to win
    1...what analysis has to do instead to have the correct answer?
    2...how accurate the statistic result could be?
    thank you memas

  17. #17
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    Re: standard deviation

    Quote Originally Posted by memas View Post
    the groups are football teams and i want to know which group has the most posibilities to win
    1...what analysis has to do instead to have the correct answer?
    2...how accurate the statistic result could be?
    thank you memas
    This yet again doesn't clarify my (incredibly necessary) questions. I'm sorry, I'm not going to respond to this thread anymore. Metaphorically, you're asking me to build a rocket without telling me if it has to go to the moon or carry a firework.
    The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
    Bertrand Russell

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