[R] [OT] "Dispersion" in French

[(Ted Harding)]

Greetings,

I'm posting this OT query here because of out very international
membership!

In the French sentence

  "Les taux de tirage sont calculés de manière à ce que la
   dispersion soit inférieure à 5 % dans chaque strate."

it would seem intended that the "dispersion" is to be calculated
in a specific way (unstated) -- otherwise, how to ensure that it
shall be less than 5%?

So my question is: What, in English, would one use for "dispersion"?

Standard deviation?

Just as in English, also in general French usage in statistics,
"dispersion" is a general term for which one can adopt various
"mesures de dispersion" such as "écart standard", etc. So in
principle this sentence is as meaningful as the English "The sample
sizes are to be calculated so as to ensure that the dispersion
is less then 5% in each stratum." I would still want to know
which measure of dispersion is to be adopted!

Nevertheless, perhaps francophone statisticians will have a
"default" interpretation of "dispersion" in such a context.

With thanks for any help,
Ted.


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Date: 08-Jul-05                                       Time: 09:30:04
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