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The red population has mean 100 and variance 100 (SD=10) while the blue population has mean 100 and variance 2500 (SD=50) where SD stands for Standard Deviation. In probability theory and statistics, variance is the expected value of the squared deviation from the mean of a random variable.
Squared deviations from the mean (SDM) result from squaring deviations. In probability theory and statistics , the definition of variance is either the expected value of the SDM (when considering a theoretical distribution ) or its average value (for actual experimental data).
About 68% of values drawn from a normal distribution are within one standard deviation σ from the mean; about 95% of the values lie within two standard deviations; and about 99.7% are within three standard deviations. [8] This fact is known as the 68–95–99.7 (empirical) rule, or the 3-sigma rule.
While the standard deviation does measure how far typical values tend to be from the mean, other measures are available. An example is the mean absolute deviation, which might be considered a more direct measure of average distance, compared to the root mean square distance inherent in the standard deviation.
Sigma (/ ˈ s ɪ ɡ m ə / SIG-mə; [1] uppercase Σ, lowercase σ, lowercase in word-final position ς; Ancient Greek: σίγμα) is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet.In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 200.
In the empirical sciences, the so-called three-sigma rule of thumb (or 3 σ rule) expresses a conventional heuristic that nearly all values are taken to lie within three standard deviations of the mean, and thus it is empirically useful to treat 99.7% probability as near certainty.
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Physical scientists often use the term root mean square as a synonym for standard deviation when it can be assumed the input signal has zero mean, that is, referring to the square root of the mean squared deviation of a signal from a given baseline or fit. [8] [9] This is useful for electrical engineers in calculating the "AC only" RMS of a signal.