A measure of dispersion that uses the largest and smallest measurements of a sampling is called what?

The measure of dispersion that uses the largest and smallest measurements of a sampling is known as the range. The range provides a simple way to understand the spread of data by subtracting the smallest value from the largest value in the dataset. This gives a quick overview of how much variability exists within the data set, which can be important for identifying the scope of values collected.

In contrast, the mean represents the average value of all measurements and does not indicate the spread. The median refers to the middle value when values are arranged in order and similarly does not address dispersion directly. Standard deviation, while also a measure of dispersion, calculates the average distance of each data point from the mean and is a more complex representation of variability than the range which is based solely on extremes in the data.