dev

dev

In statistics and probability theory, standard deviation (represented by the symbol sigma, σ) shows how much variation or dispersion exists from the average (mean, or expected value).

References

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_deviation

dev(M)

Standard deviation is a very common calculation in statistical analysis, and is formally defined as the square root of the variance of the data set.

Argument M

Matrix

Returns 1. entry

Scalar

Example

dev([2, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 7, 9])

Computes the standard deviation of those eight values. The result is 2.