Std Deviation..

[dumb.doofus]

Is the standard deviation of the salaries of Company Y’s employees greater than the standard deviation of the salaries of Company Z’s employees?
(1) The average (arithmetic mean) salary of Company Y’s employees is greater than the average salary of Company Z’s employees.
(2) The median salary of Company Y’s employees is greater than the median salary of Company Z’s employees.

OA: A

I think the OA is incorrect..

[spoiler]In my opinion the answer should be E.

If we take two series
1) 1,4,7,10,13
2) 25,26,27,28,29
clearly the SD in (1) is greater than the SD in (2) although avg of (2) is higher. and we can prove otherwise too by increasing or decreasing the spacings.. So in the above question, how can the OA be (A)?

I think it should be E[/spoiler]

[Ian Stewart]

It's certainly E. What source claims the answer is A?

[cubicle_bound_misfit]

whatever I have learnt from all the Ian Stuart's lessons,

SD is the spread from mean.
as long as you do not know the spread for both companies, no way you can answer which SD is greater hence E.