Answer :
Final answer:
It represents the sample standard deviation calculated from the given data set. The sample standard deviation is a measure of the amount of variation or dispersion in a set of values. Therefore, the correct answer is option b) 98.07.
Explanation:
To calculate the sample standard deviation, we first need to find the mean (average) of the data set. Adding up all the temperatures and dividing by the total number of temperatures, we get:
(97.8 + 97.8 + 98.8 + 98.8 + 99.4 + 99.4 + 97.6 + 97.6 + 97.9 + 97.9 + 98.4 + 98.4 + 99.2 + 99.2 + 96.5 + 96.5 + 97.2 + 97.2 + 97.8 + 97.8 + 97.0 + 97.0 + 96.5 + 96.5 + 98.4 + 98.4 + 97.4 + 97.4 + 99.2 + 99.2 + 97.8 + 97.8 + 97.4 + 97.4 + 98.2 + 98.2 + 97.0 + 97.0 + 97.9 + 97.9) / 40 = 98.07
Next, we find the deviation of each temperature from the mean, square each deviation, sum up all the squared deviations, divide by the total number of observations minus 1, and finally, take the square root of this result.
After performing these calculations, we find the sample standard deviation to be approximately 0.593 (rounded to one more decimal place than the largest number of decimal places given in the data).
Therefore, the correct answer is option b) 98.07.
