Range

The range is the difference between the largest and the smallest number in a set. Although it is commonly taught together with the topics of mean, median, and mode, the range is not a measure of central tendency. Rather, it is one of the measures of dispersion or variability. Simply put, we find the range of a given data set by subtracting the number with the lowest value from the number with the highest value.

Example: Find the range of the numbers below.

6, 10, 13, 28, 11, 2, 15, 22

• The largest number is 28.
• The smallest number is 2.

? To find the range, we need to subtract 2 from 28:

28 - 2 = 26

Therefore, the range for the set of numbers above is 26.