alleryStart learning →The standard deviation of a data set is always:
AExactly equal to one
BPositive or zero
CNegative or zero
DStrictly negative
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: B. Positive or zero
1. Standard deviation is built from squared distances, which cannot be negative.
2. The standard deviation provides a measure of the overall variation in a data set.
3. The standard deviation is always positive or zero.
4. It equals zero only when every value in the set is identical.
_Source: OpenStax Introductory Statistics 2e (CC BY 4.0), Ch 2 'Descriptive Statistics', sections 2.1-2.7_
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