Range

Understand the meaning of range in statistics, how it measures the spread of data, and learn with simple examples.

1. Meaning of Range

Range is the simplest measure of how spread out a set of values is. It tells the difference between the highest value and the lowest value in the data.

If the range is large, the values are widely spread. If the range is small, the values are close to each other.

Range helps get a quick idea of how much variation the data has without using complex calculations.

2. Formula for Range

The formula for range is:

\( \text{Range} = \text{Maximum Value} - \text{Minimum Value} \)

This simple difference gives the total spread of the data.

3. Example

Consider the data: 4, 9, 3, 7, 12

Maximum value = 12

Minimum value = 3

\( \text{Range} = 12 - 3 = 9 \)

This means the values in the data set spread over 9 units.