Question

How would you explain the Variance in simple terms to an audience not familiar with statistics?

Answer 1

In statistics, variance is used to measure how far a set of numbers are spread out. The value of the variance is used to describe how much a set of numbers/observations differ from their average (arithmetic mean) value.

Since the formula for variance is the average of the squared differences between the individual numbers/observations and their average value, the value of variance can never be zero.
Higher the value of the variance, farther are a set of numbers/observations situated from their average value.

In practice, it is desired that a set of numbers have a low variance. This helps in predicting a new value with more accuracy.