Standard Deviation

What effect does the standard deviation have on the Gaussian distribution? Let's repeat the same experiment. Take a look at what happens as the standard deviation changes but everything else remains the same.

What do you notice is happening as the standard deviation increases? Answer the quiz:

As the standard deviation increases, uncertainty increases as well. Compare the charts where standard deviation is 5 and standard deviation is 15. When the standard deviation is five, the distribution looks tall and skinny, which implies that the temperature is more likely to be near 50 degrees.

When the standard deviation increases to 15, the distribution gets flat and wide; the probability that the temperature is near 50 goes down while the probability that the temperature is farther to the left or to the right on the x-axis is increasing.