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How to Find Standard Deviation on a TI 84 Plus

In statistics, the standard deviation is the square root of the variance; it's one way of showing how data varies, or how it is spread out in a distribution. The standard deviation tells you how much of the data lies within a certain area. A standard deviation can be tricky to calculate by hand, as it requires multiple steps. The TI84 Plus graphing calculator can eliminate those steps and calculate the standard deviation in just a few keystrokes.

Instructions

- 1
  Click on the "2nd" key and then click on "0." This selects the catalog.
- 2
  Press the "LN" button to scroll through the catalog to the letter "s."
- 3
  Press the "down arrow" key to scroll until you reach "stdDev(." Press "Enter."
- 4
  Complete the statement with an open curly bracket -- the "{" sign -- and the numbers for which you want to find the standard deviation, followed by a closing curly bracket and closing parenthesis. For example: stdDev({1,2,3,4,5,6}).
- 5
  Press the "Enter" key. The calculator will return the standard deviation for the entered numbers.

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