Dispersioonimõõdikud

Dispersioonimõõdikud, known in English as dispersion measures or measures of dispersion, are statistical values that describe the spread or variability of data points in a dataset. They quantify how much the individual data points deviate from the central tendency of the data. Understanding dispersion is crucial for a complete analysis of data, as it provides insight into the consistency and reliability of the observations.

Common examples of dispersion measures include the range, which is the difference between the maximum and minimum values in a dataset. While simple, the range can be heavily influenced by outliers. The interquartile range (IQR) is another measure, representing the difference between the third quartile (75th percentile) and the first quartile (25th percentile). The IQR is more robust to outliers than the range.

The variance is a fundamental measure of dispersion that calculates the average of the squared differences from the mean. Squaring the differences ensures that all values are positive and gives more weight to larger deviations. The standard deviation, which is the square root of the variance, is often preferred because it is in the same units as the original data, making it easier to interpret. A larger standard deviation indicates greater dispersion, while a smaller one suggests that the data points are clustered closer to the mean. These measures are essential tools for comparing the variability of different datasets and for making informed decisions based on data analysis.