<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:14px"><span style="color:black">An important characteristic of any set of data is the variation in the data. In some data sets, the data values are concentrated closely near the mean; in other data sets, the data values are more widely spread out from the mean. The most common measure of variation, or spread, is the standard deviation. The </span><strong><span style="color:black">standard deviation </span></strong><span style="color:black">is a number that measures how far data values are from their mean.</span></span></p>