Median in mathematics is the middle value of the data, which separates the data into two equal halves; which means fifty percent of the numbers are above the median and fifty percent of the numbers are below the median. So, the Definition of Median can be written as a mathematical result that indicates that one half of the data or group is higher and one half lower. For instance, if there are 5 children in Smiths family of ages 5, 12, 7,9, 3, 15; how do we find the age of the middle child? We need to find the middle child first, so we need to put the ages in an increasing order. The order would be 3, 5, 7,9,12,15. From this ordered list, we can easily make out that 7 is the middle value and that is the Median of the data. So, we can conclude that the age of the middle child is 7 years.
If there is ‘n’ number of values in a given data; then the Median Formula is:
Median = (number of values in the data)/2= (n+1)/2
Median Formula =(n+1)/2
While Calculating Median or Finding the Median of a given data, the steps are:
Step1. Arrange the list in the ascending order
Step2. Count the number of values in the list (whether even or odd)
Step3. If the number of values in the list is odd; then median is the value exactly in the middle of the list and if the number of values in the list is even; then the mean of the two middle values is the median
Let us Find the Median or Find Median of the given data.
A marathon race was completed by 5 participants. How do you find the median of the race, given the data 3.6hrs 4.2hrs 3.2hrs 5.4hrs 4.8hrs?
Let us first arrange the data in the ascending order, 3.2, 3.6, 4.2, 4.8, 5.4
The number of values in the data, n=5. So, the third value 4.2hrs which is exactly in the middle is the median of the race.
The Jones Family drove through 6 states on their summer vacation. Find the median of gasoline price if the gasoline prices varied from state to state. $3.29, $3.34, $3.27, $4.02, $3.60, $3.86
To find the median we need to arrange the data in increasing order.
$3.27, $3.29, $3.34, $3.60, $3.86, $4.02
Here, n=6 ; data has even number of values. So, median would be the mean of the two middle values. The two middle values are 3.34 and 3.60.
Median=(3.34+3.60)/2 = 3.47
The median of the gasoline rate is $3.47
