Suppose you have two data sets:
Dataset $A$: $4$, $2$, $6$, $5$, $3$, $3$, $5$, $4$, $4$
Dataset $B$: $8$, $0$, $0$, $8$, $9$, $1$, $1$, $9$, $0$
Both data sets have a mean of $4$, but dataset $A$'s values center much more around the mean whereas dataset $B$'s values group around two extremes ($0$ and $1$ & $8$ and $9$)
I am looking for the statistical equation to show how closely the values related to the average. I am looking for more than just a "range" of numbers in the dataset. Would standard deviation do the trick?
You are probably looking for the variance.