The mean life of a sample of $60$ bulbs was $650$ hours and the standard deviation was $8$ hours. $A$ second sample of $80$ bulbs has a mean life of $660$ hours and standard deviation $7$ hours. Find the overall standard deviation.

Given: $n_{1}=60, \bar{x}_{1}=650, s_{1}=8$ and $n_{2}=80, \bar{x}_{2}=660, s_{2}=7$.
The formula for the combined standard deviation $\sigma$ is:
$\sigma = \sqrt{\frac{n_{1} s_{1}^{2} + n_{2} s_{2}^{2}}{n_{1} + n_{2}} + \frac{n_{1} n_{2}(\bar{x}_{1} - \bar{x}_{2})^{2}}{(n_{1} + n_{2})^{2}}}$
Substituting the values:
$\sigma = \sqrt{\frac{60(8)^{2} + 80(7)^{2}}{60 + 80} + \frac{60 \times 80(650 - 660)^{2}}{(60 + 80)^{2}}}$
$\sigma = \sqrt{\frac{60(64) + 80(49)}{140} + \frac{4800(-10)^{2}}{(140)^{2}}}$
$\sigma = \sqrt{\frac{3840 + 3920}{140} + \frac{480000}{19600}}$
$\sigma = \sqrt{\frac{7760}{140} + \frac{4800}{196}} = \sqrt{55.428 + 24.489} = \sqrt{79.917} \approx 8.94$ hours.