The mean and the standard deviation (s.d.) of 10 observations are 20 and 2 respectively. Each of these 10 observations is multiplied by $p$ $$ and then reduced by $$ $q$ , where $p=0$ $$ and $q\ne 0$ $$ . If the new mean and new s.d. become half of their original values, then $q$ $$ is equal to:

Variance of a, b, c & a+2, b+2, c+2, are same.
Given: b = a + c (i)
d² = (1/3) (a² + b² + c²) - [ (a+b+c)/3]²
as a + c = b
d² = (1/3) (a² + b² + c²) - (2b/3)²
9d² = 3 (a² + b² + c²) - 4b²
⇒ b² = 3 (a² + c²) - 9d²

$\overline{x}=\frac{{\displaystyle \sum _{i=1}^{10}{x}_i}}{10}=15\frac{{\displaystyle \sum _{i=1}^{10}{x_i}^2}}{10}-{\left(\overline{x}\right)}^2=15$

$\Rightarrow \Sigma x_i=150\Sigma {x_i}^2=2400$

Actual mean $\overline{x}=\frac{\Sigma x_i+15-25}{10}=\frac{140}{10}=14$

Actual variance = $\frac{\Sigma {x_i}^2+15^2-25^2}{10}-{\left(14\right)}^2$

$=\frac{2400-400}{10}-196$

$\begin{array}{l}{\sigma }^2=4\\ \sigma =2\end{array}$