ROTICH learning material · 1 minute read
Start with a question
We will describe a small set of values, not infer a population result. Download the synthetic CSV below, then open Data Studio.
Inspect the data
The values are 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10. There are five observations with no missing values. Check that the value column is treated as numeric.
Check the calculations
The sum is 30, so the mean is 6. The median is also 6. The range is 8. Squared deviations sum to 40: population variance is 8 and sample variance is 10. Sample standard deviation is approximately 3.1623.
Interpret with care
Mean and median describe location; variance describes spread. The sample variance uses n − 1, whereas the population variance uses n. These five synthetic values do not support a claim about real people.
Try it
Add one value of 100 and compare the new mean with the median. Explain which summary changes most before drawing a conclusion.
Example input
value
2
4
6
8
10