Identify the data set: (x_1, x_2, dots, x_n)
Compute the mean: (bar{x}=frac{1}{n}sum_{i=1}^{n} x_i)
Compute deviations from the mean: (d_i=x_i-bar{x})
Square deviations: (d_i^2=(x_i-bar{x})^2)
Sum squared deviations: (sum_{i=1}^{n}(x_i-bar{x})^2)
Choose the variance formula:
Population variance: (sigma^2=frac{1}{n}sum_{i=1}^{n}(x_i-bar{x})^2)
Sample variance: (s^2=frac{1}{n-1}sum_{i=1}^{n}(x_i-bar{x})^2)
Report the variance value ((sigma^2) or (s^2))