What is the definition of the median in a data set?

What is the definition of the median in a data set?

• A. The largest value in the data set.
• B. The middle value when the numbers are arranged in order (or the average of the two middle values if even).
• C. The sum of all values divided by the count.
• D. The smallest value in the data set.

Answer: (B)

The median is the middle value of a data set when the numbers are arranged from smallest to largest. If there’s an even number of values, you take the average of the two central numbers. For example, with 3, 7, 9 the median is 7; with 3, 7, 8, 10 the middle numbers are 7 and 8, so the median is 7.5. This makes the median a good measure of central tendency when data are skewed, because it isn’t dragged toward extremely large or small values the way the mean can be. The largest value is just the maximum, the smallest value is the minimum, and the mean is the sum of all values divided by the count; these describe different aspects of the data, not the central position in the ordered list.

The median is the middle value of a data set when the numbers are arranged from smallest to largest. If there’s an even number of values, you take the average of the two central numbers. For example, with 3, 7, 9 the median is 7; with 3, 7, 8, 10 the middle numbers are 7 and 8, so the median is 7.5. This makes the median a good measure of central tendency when data are skewed, because it isn’t dragged toward extremely large or small values the way the mean can be. The largest value is just the maximum, the smallest value is the minimum, and the mean is the sum of all values divided by the count; these describe different aspects of the data, not the central position in the ordered list.