FINDING THE MEDIAN

One of the measures of the center is the median. The median represents the middle value of an ordered data set.

Example 1 : 

A coach records the distances that some cross-country team members ran last week. Find the median.

Distances Run

Solution :

Write the data values in order from least to greatest.

Example 2 : 

Find the median of these test scores :

87, 90, 77, 83, 99, 94, 93, 90, 85, 83

Solution : 

Write the data values in order from least to greatest.

77   83   83   85   87   90   90   93   94   99

This data set has two middle values :

87 and 90

The median is the average of these two values :

Median  =  (87 + 90) / 2

Median  =  177 / 2

Median  =  88.5

Reflect

Which units are used for the data in Example 1 ? If the coach had recorded some distances in kilometers and some in miles, can you still find the median of the data? Explain.

Miles; no, not unless the coach converts all the data to the same units.

Your Turn

Charlotte recorded the number of minutes she spent exercising in the past ten days :

12, 4, 5, 6, 8, 7, 9, 8, 2, 1

Find the median of the data.

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