problems with solving standard deviation

[thecheat]

well, my brother's having trouble solving standard deviation problems on the TI-84 SE once we got how to set up the problem on the calc down, we're getting different answers than the math book, on ALL of them, yet, when done manually they come out correct... it's really odd... have any of you run into this before, and if so, how would I go about fixing this?

[kalan_vod]

In our class we were going through this and we were getting correct Ans. Make sure you are setting it up correctly.

[thecheat]

well, that could be the problem, but, my dad tried it on his HP something-or-another and was getting the same answers, something is amis, so far the book's answers haven't been wrong (to our misfortune )

here's what it looks like on the calc, it may have been misspelled here:

stnddeviation({2,1,4,2....})

that would be correct, right?

[Spencer]

There are two types of standard deviations. Do a one-var statistics on a list. Depending on your book, you'll either use "S," which is uses n in the denominator, or "sigma" which is n-1. The reasons behind the two are generally overly complicated, and the former is more common. This is a common source "weird answers" and it's often left up the authors to decide which to use. The stdDev command uses n in the denominator.

[thecheat]

directions? sorry, but, let's just say we aren't the most calculator adept people out there, I may be able to make a few EXTREMELY small and simple basic programs, but, I really am not all that great with the commands. let's just say my brother wouldn't happen to be either.

[Spencer]

STAT -> calc -> 1-Var Statistics L1

[KermMartian]

Can't get much easier than that.