Need help manually finding the standard deviation using an external function
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I am new to matlab (taking an intro to matlab class), but for my assignment I have to do a number of things including randomly generating 10 scores for each of 25 students. Then take the median, mean, and standard deviation for each student's scores. For median and mean I used median(Score,2) and mean(Score,2) to find the values for each row (individual student's 10 scores). I am struggling to figure out how to manually find the standard deviation for each student. I also have to use Matlab functions to find the std and compare it to the manual calculation. The part I am inquiring about is part D in the code. I know I probably dont have it right at all this is just my starting point from looking stuff up online. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.![](https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/uploaded_files/369646/image.png)
![](https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/uploaded_files/369646/image.png)
![](https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/uploaded_files/369643/image.png)
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Accepted Answer
Ameer Hamza
on 2 Oct 2020
Edited: Ameer Hamza
on 2 Oct 2020
It should be something like this
z = sqrt(1/N*sum((Score - mean_student).^2, 2))
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Ameer Hamza
on 2 Oct 2020
MATLAB uses following formula for std
![](https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/uploaded_files/369781/image.png)
The difference is division by N-1 in this case. In your formula, there is a division by N. This is an unbiased estimator of standard deviation. Your formula is a biased estimator. Both are equally valid, and you should use the one given to you. Read the discussion here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_deviation#Estimation.
You cannot make the MATLAB's std result match your formula.
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