Sx and sy represent the standard deviations of two variables, x and y, respectively. Standard deviation is a measure of how spread out the data is from the average or mean value.
The standard deviation can be calculated by taking the square root of the variance, which is the average of the squared differences from the mean. In this equation, the standard deviation for x is 8.6 and the standard deviation for y is 7.4.
The standard deviation is an important statistical measure in scientific research as it allows us to understand the variability of data and how well the data represents the population. It is also used to determine the reliability of results and to make comparisons between different sets of data.
The standard deviation can affect the shape of a data distribution by indicating how spread out the data is from the mean. A larger standard deviation means that the data is more spread out, resulting in a wider and flatter distribution curve. A smaller standard deviation means that the data is more tightly clustered around the mean, resulting in a narrower and taller distribution curve.
No, the standard deviation cannot be negative. It is always a positive value as it represents the distance from the mean and cannot be less than zero.