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    Effects of Constant Changes On A Set's Data

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    Charalampidis Dimitris
    In this document we are going to see how a set's mean, standard deviation and variance are affected when we add, subtract, multiply or divide each of the set's data by a constant c.

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    © All Rights Reserved

    Effects of Constant Changes On A Set's Data

    Uploaded by

    Charalampidis Dimitris
    704 views3 pages
    In this document we are going to see how a set's mean, standard deviation and variance are affected when we add, subtract, multiply or divide each of the set's data by a constant c.

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    Effects of Constant Changes on a Set's Data

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    In this document we are going to see how a set's mean, standard deviation and variance are affected when we add, subtract, multiply or divide each of the set's data by a constant c.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    704 views3 pages

    Effects of Constant Changes On A Set's Data

    Uploaded by

    Charalampidis Dimitris
    In this document we are going to see how a set's mean, standard deviation and variance are affected when we add, subtract, multiply or divide each of the set's data by a constant c.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    Dimitris Charalampidis charalampidisdimitris.

    com Statistics

    Effect of constant changes


    in a set’s mean, standard deviation and variance

    We know that the mean and the standard deviation of a set of values can provide us with
    information regarding the way this set behaves.

    Now we are going to see how these two would be affected by some constant changes in each
    of the set’s values and more precisely what would happen to them if we add, subtract, multiply
    or divide each of the set’s values by the same number

    Case 1: Adding the same number in each of the set’s values.

    Given a set of values with original mean x and standard deviation  , if we add the same
    number c in each of the set’s values, then the mean will become x + c but the standard
    deviation will remain the same.

    Case 2: Subtracting the same number from each of the set’s values

    Given a set of values with original mean x and standard deviation  , if we subtract the same
    number c from each of the set’s values, then the mean will become x − c but the standard
    deviation will remain the same.

    Case 3: Multiplying each of the set’s values by a constant number c

    Given a set of values with original mean x and standard deviation  , if we multiply by the
    number c each of the set’s values, then the mean will become x  c and the standard deviation
    will become   c respectively.
    Dimitris Charalampidis charalampidisdimitris.com Statistics

    Case 4: Dividing each of the set’s values by the same non-zero constant number c

    Given a set of values with original mean x and standard deviation  , if we divide by the non-
    x
    zero number c each of the set’s values, then the mean will become and the standard
    c

    deviation will become respectively.
    c

    Extra case

    Although we just learned what the effects of constant changes will be in the values of mean and
    standard deviation, there will be exercises, where we will be asked to determine the effect of a
    constant change in the value of variance.

    In this case, think that the variance is equal to the square of standard deviation.

    Hence, find what will the new standard deviation be and simply square that number.

    More precisely,

    • If we add or subtract a constant number c, the variance will be the same since the
    standard deviation itself will remain as it was originally.
    • If we multiply by c, then the new standard deviation will become   c , which further

    ( )
    2
    means that the new variance will be the square of that:  c =  2  c =  2  c2
    2

    And that means that the old variance will be multiplied by the square of c.

    • If we divide by c, then the new standard deviation will become and similarly to
    c
    multiplication, the new value of variance will be the square of that number:
    2
      2 2
      = 2 = 2 .
    c  c c

    This means that the new variance will be taken from the old one divided by the square
    of c.
    Dimitris Charalampidis charalampidisdimitris.com Statistics

    Gathering all the information:

    For a set of values that has a mean of x , a standard deviation of  and a variance of  2 :

    Change New mean New standard deviation New variance


    Add c x +c  2
    Subtract c x −c  2
    Multiply by c x c c  2  c2 Note that:

    Whatever the change is, the


    Divide by c x  2 same effect will have on the
    c c c2 mean’s value.

    On the contrary standard


    deviation and variance are
    only affected by
    multiplication and division

    Example
    In a given set of values, the mean is 7, and the standard deviation is 2.
    a) Each value is multiplied by 3. What will the new mean and standard deviation be?
    New mean: 7  3 = 21

    New standard deviation: 2  3 = 2  3 = 6

    b) If to the new set of values created, we add 10 to each of the values, what will their new
    variance be?
    The new set created will have a variance equal to the square of 6, therefore 36
    New variance will be the same as the old one since variance is not affected by an addition.
    Hence the answer is 36

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