Which term describes the difference between the smallest and largest values in a dataset?

The term that describes the difference between the smallest and largest values in a dataset is the range. The range is calculated by subtracting the smallest value from the largest value, providing a simple measure of the spread of the data set. This concept helps in understanding how far apart the values are and provides a quick insight into the variability within the dataset.

Variance and standard deviation, on the other hand, are measures of how data points differ from the mean of the dataset, rather than the extremes of the dataset itself. Variance quantifies the average of the squared differences from the mean, while standard deviation is the square root of variance, both focusing on distribution around the mean rather than the maximum and minimum values.

The interquartile range (IQR) measures the spread of the middle 50% of the data by calculating the difference between the first quartile (25th percentile) and the third quartile (75th percentile). Although it is a useful measure for identifying the spread without outliers, it does not encompass the entire range of values like the range does. Therefore, range is the most appropriate term for describing the difference between the smallest and largest values in a dataset.