The concept of the standard deviation (SD) is the center piece to understanding the basics of descriptive statistics. It is critical that you master your knowledge of the SD. Accordingly, on p. 87 of Macfie/Nufrio, the authors state in paragraph one: “the easiest interpretations to recognize that the standard deviation is roughly the average distance of observed values from the mean. For most normal data sets, the majority of observations . . . lie within a minus or plus one standard deviation of the mean.. . observations that are more than three SDs away from the mean are quite possible outliers”.
Please reflect on this statement and restate in your own words in your response. Macfie, Brian and Philip M. Nufrio. Applied Statisticsfor Public Policy. M.E. Sharpe, 2006.