Why is variance squared?
Understand the Problem
The question is asking for an explanation of why variance is expressed as the square of the standard deviation, which involves understanding the concept of variance in statistics and its relationship to standard deviation.
Answer
Squaring is done to weigh outliers more heavily and prevent differences from cancelling out.
The final answer is Squaring is done to weigh outliers more heavily and prevent differences from cancelling out.
Answer for screen readers
The final answer is Squaring is done to weigh outliers more heavily and prevent differences from cancelling out.
More Information
By squaring the differences from the mean, positive and negative differences do not cancel each other out. Additionally, it makes outliers more impactful on the variance.
Sources
- What difference between standard deviation and variance - Investopedia - investopedia.com
- Why is variance squared? - Quora - quora.com
- Variance - Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org