Despite our best efforts, we were never able to get the same results for two different conditions; each result will be different, even if the variation is slight. Every piece of data that is measured will vary to some extent. Variation can be described as "the numerical value used to demonstrate how widely individuals in a group differ." In other words, variation provides insight into the distribution of data around the mean or an expected value. Achieving a variation of 0 means your outcomes are identical, which is a rare circumstance. While a lesser variation suggests that the data points are closer to the mean, a high variation indicates that the data points are dispersed from the mean and from each other.