Sample standard deviation measures the spread of the numbers in the sample,

Just type sample standard deviation into youtube you will get plenty of examples.
*If all the numbers in the sample are close together then the standard deviation is small
if the numbers are far apart the standard deviation is large
*You need to find the sample mean before calculating the sample standard deviation because the
sample standard deviation measures how close the numbers in the sample are to the sample mean
You should understand standard deviation by looking at the examples below, The formula are
Sample mean:

x
s

1 n
xi
n i 1
2

n
i 1

Sample variance:

( x x )2

n 1

n 1

1
x nx
n 1

2
i 1 i

(i 1 xi ) 2

2
i 1 i

2
Sample standard deviation: s s

Example 1
For the sample 1,7,4
The sample size is n=3
1 7 4
x
4
3
The sample mean
The sample standard deviation squared method 1 (it does not matter which method you use)
12 7 2 4 2 3 4 2 1 49 16 3 16 66 48 18
s2

9
3 1
2
2
2
The sample standard deviation squared method 2 (it does not matter which method you use)
(1 4) 2 (7 4) 2 (4 4) 2 (3) 2 3 2 0 2 9 9 0 18
s2

9
3 1
2
2
2
So sample standard deviation s=

s2 9 3

Example 2

What is the sample size n, sample mean x and sample standard deviation s of the sample 3,5,1
Solution n=3,

3 5 1
(3 3) 2 (5 3) 2 (1 3) 2
3, s
2
3
3 1

Example 3

If you have the following sample of observations 306,314,298,290,292

the sample size n=5,
The sample mean

306 314 298 290 292

5
=300

(306 300) 2 (314 300) 2 (298 300) 2 ( 290 300) 2 (292 300) 2
s
100
5 1
The standard variance
so the sample standard deviation = 100 =10
2