This document provides examples that use standard deviation to describe data distributions and calculate z-scores. It explains how standard deviation can be used as a "ruler" to measure distances from the mean in standard deviation units. Various datasets like test scores, home run totals, birth rates, and more are presented along with calculations of their means, standard deviations, and z-scores. Examples show how z-scores can be used to compare values across distributions and determine how many standard deviations a data point is from the mean.