Can you help me understand how I can estimate the variance of a variable?

Certain ly ! Vari ance is a measure of how spread out a set of data is from the mean . To estimate the variance of a variable , you can follow these steps : \n \n 1 . Cal culate the mean of the variable : This is the average value of the data . \n 2 . Sub tract the mean from each data point : This gives you the dev iation of each data point from the mean . \n 3 . Square each dev iation : This gives you the squ ared dev iation of each data point from the mean . \n 4 . Sum up all the squ ared dev i ations : This gives you the sum of squ ared dev i ations ( SS D ). \n 5 . Div ide the sum of squ ared dev i ations by the number of data points min us one : This gives you the variance of the variable . \n \n Here ' s an example to illustr ate the process : \n \n Supp ose you have the following data : 2 , 4 , 6 , 8 , 1 0 . \n \n 1 . Cal culate the mean : ( 2 + 4 + 6 + 8 + 1 0 ) / 5 = 6 . \n 2 . Sub tract the mean from each data point : \n * 2 - 6 = - 4 \n * 4 - 6 = - 2 \n * 6 - 6 = 0 \n * 8 - 6 = 2 \n * 1 0 - 6 = 4 \n 3 . Square each dev iation : \n * (- 4 )^ 2 = 1 6 \n * (- 2 )^ 2 = 4 \n * 0 ^ 2 = 0 \n * 2 ^ 2 = 4 \n * 4 ^ 2 = 1 6 \n 4 . Sum up all the squ ared dev i ations : 1 6 + 4 + 0 + 4 + 1 6 = 3 4 \n 5 . Div ide the sum of squ ared dev i ations by the number of data points min us one : 3 4 / ( 5 - 1 ) = 3 4 / 4 = 8 . 5 \n \n There fore , the estimated variance of the variable is 8 . 5 . </s>