## Pages

### Can you describe coefficient of variance in 140 characters?

"Can you describe coefficient of variance in 140 characters?", asked a medical librarian on Twitter:

laikas RT @shamsha: need help: can someone plz describe coefficient of variance in English? thnx!

Some people obviously can:

@HCIR_GeneG: It's a measure of variability of a data sample, without paying attention to absolute values. Can be used to compare diff. distributions.

@flutesUD: CV = Std Dev / Mean. Tells u how variable the data are regardless of their units. Lets u compare across different types of studies.

My suggestion:

DrVes@laikas @shamsha Check the Wikipedia definition, click on the links in the description and you'll get there... :) http://bit.ly/18NnEH

In probability theory and statistics, the coefficient of variation (CV) is a normalized measure of dispersion of a probability distribution. It is defined as the ratio of the standard deviation $\ \sigma$ to the mean $\ \mu$.

The inclusion of a Twitter update (tweet) in does not represent endorsement or agreement of any kind. If you are included in this post but you would like to have your tweet removed for any reason, please email me and will comply with your request the same day.