What is the term used to describe the difference between the highest score and the lowest score in a dataset?

The term that describes the difference between the highest score and the lowest score in a dataset is known as the range. The range provides a simple measure of statistical dispersion, giving insight into the spread of the data. By calculating the range, one can quickly assess the variability within the data set, as it captures the extent to which the highest and lowest values are apart from each other. This can be particularly useful when analyzing datasets, as a larger range can indicate more variability in the values observed, while a smaller range suggests that values are more closely clustered together.

The other terms listed have specific meanings related to different aspects of statistics. The median refers to the middle value in a dataset when the values are arranged in ascending or descending order, and it is used to understand the central tendency of the data. Variance measures the average of the squared differences from the mean, indicating how spread out the data points are around the mean, while standard deviation is the square root of the variance and provides a measure of spread in the same units as the data, also reflecting how much individual data points typically differ from the mean. Each of these measures serves different purposes and contexts in statistical analysis but does not define the simple difference between the highest and lowest values like the range does