Standard deviation measures how dispersed the values are around the mean.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Not sure
• D. Cannot be determined

Answer: (A)

This statement is true because standard deviation directly quantifies how far data points typically lie from the mean. It is calculated as the square root of the average of the squared deviations from the mean, so a small standard deviation means observations are tightly clustered around the mean, while a large one indicates wider dispersion. For example, values close to each other like 1, 2, 3 have a small spread around their mean, whereas values spread out more widely will yield a larger standard deviation. This focus on deviations from the mean makes standard deviation a precise measure of dispersion about the mean, unlike other measures that capture different aspects of spread.