- Input
- Values: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 with sample variance selected.
- Method
- Sort the values, compute the mean, calculate squared deviations, then divide by n - 1 for sample variance.
- Formula
- s^2 = sum((x_i - xbar)^2) / (n - 1)
- Intermediate steps
- n = 5
- xbar = 15 / 5 = 3
- sum of squared deviations = 10
- Final result
- Sample variance = 2.5 and sample standard deviation = 1.5811.
- Interpretation
- The center is 3 and the sample spread is moderate relative to the small five-value set.
- Limitation
- Five values are enough for a calculation but not enough to infer population shape confidently.