Calculating sum of squared deviations in R

r, statistics

Solution

It may well be correct. -2.0 to the power of 10^15 means it is essentially zero. But as Justin just noted in the comment, you have

    (sum (x - mean(x) )^2

when you probably meant:

    sum( (x - mean(x) )^2 )

Problem

How can I calculate the sum of squared deviations(from the mean) of a vector? I tried using the command sum(x-mean(x))^2 but unfortunately what this returns is -1.998401e-15 which cannot be right. Is there a subtle operator, like a parenthesis, that I am missing here perhaps? Thanks.

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