Question

2. In an experiment with a mass attached to a spring, a student measures the period of the oscillation t as follows: 1.94 s, 1.96 s, 2.01 s, 1.98 s, 2.02 s, 2.00 s, 1.99 s, 2.01 s, 1.98 s, 1.97 s. a) What is the average and b) standard deviation? Use the instructions for excel to find statistics on a set of similar numbers, round to the correct # sig figs. Zeroes to the right do. ALWAYS include units for a number that has units. These statistics have the same units all the way throug

Answer 1

Answer: a) The average of this set of numbers is 1.98 s. b) the standard deviation is 0.02 s.

Step-by-step explanation: The average is calculated by adding all numbers found in the experiment divided by the number of values. $average = \frac{Sumxi}{n}$

The standard deviation is given by the square root of the squared sum of the difference between each number and the average divided by the total number of values. For instance, std deviation = $\frac{sqrt{(1.94-1.98)^{2}+(1.96-1.98)^2+(2.01-1.98)^2...}}{11}$ and that is done with all 11 terms of data minus the average to find the standard deviation.

In excel, the average of a certain set of numbers (displayed in cells A1 to A5) can be found by the commands =average(A1:A5). The standard deviation can be found by the commands =stdedv.p(A1:A5) in which p is the population. You can decrease decimals by clicking on the icon displayed in the Ribbon.