Christine is currently taking college astronomy. The instructor often gives quizzes. On the past seven quizzes, Christine got the following scores. Find the standard deviation. 53 12 41 29 18 42 57
A) 9072
B) 10,812
C) 17
D) 41

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To find the standard deviation of a set of data, we follow these steps:
1. Find the mean (average) of the data.
2. Subtract the mean from each data point.
3. Square each of these differences.
4. Find the average of these squared differences.
5. Take the square root of this average.

Using these steps, we find:
1. Mean = (53+12+41+29+18+42+57)/7 = 34
2. Subtracting the mean from each data point gives: 19, -22, 7, -5, -16, 8, 23
3. Squaring each of these differences gives: 361, 484, 49, 25, 256, 64, 529
4. Average of these squared differences = (361+484+49+25+256+64+529)/7 = 195.14
5. Square root of this average = 13.97

So the standard deviation is approximately 13.97, which is answer choice C.

Christine Is Currently Taking College Astronomy