Sunday, April 29, 2007

Coefficient of variation

The coefficient of variation is a dimensionless number that allows comparison of the variation of populations that have significantly different mean values. It is defined as:cv=std(X)/mean(X);
For example if:
X= [1.7 1.6 2.8 5.6 1.3 2.2 1.3 1.1 3.2 1.5 5.2 4.6 5.8 3.0];
then cv=0.5846.