First, we compute the variance by taking the sum of squares and divide that by N which is the number of data points in the same. It is average squared deviation of each number from its mean. The point is a squared number is always positive and N is always positive so the variance must always be non-negative. ( It can be 0).
The variance is a measure of the dispersion of a set of data points around their mean value.
It would not make sense for it to be negative.
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Yes, the variance of a data set is the square of the standard deviation (sigma) of the set. This means that the variance is always a positive number, even though the data might have a negative sigma value.
Yes, but negative variance indicates environmental variance (i.e., within-family or within-strain) is unusually high, possibly due to poor experimental design. Narrow sense heritability (h2, not H2) = (phenotypic variance - environmental variance) / phenotypic variance.
yes
mean = 5, variance = 5
No, a standard deviation or variance does not have a negative sign. The reason for this is that the deviations from the mean are squared in the formula. Deviations are squared to get rid of signs. In Absolute mean deviation, sum of the deviations is taken ignoring the signs, but there is no justification for doing so. (deviations are not squared here)