Question

Which of the following statements about standard deviation is true?

Answer 1

Answer:

A. Standard deviation is always a non-negative number.

Explanation:

The true statement about standard deviation is that, standard deviation is always a non-negative number.

A standard deviation is calculated by taking the square root of variance and as such the value of standard deviation is always a positive number and not a negative number.

Additionally, the variance of a sample population is calculated by the summation of all the squared distances obtained from the mean divided by the total number of samples. Hence, all the values of the variance are always positive (non-negative) numbers because they are squared. Consequently, the standard deviation would as well always be a non-negative number.