What is the formula for finding the median?

To find the median, arrange the data in order and identify the middle value or the average of two middle values.

The median is a measure of central tendency that represents the middle value in a data set. To find the median, you first need to arrange the data in ascending order, from the smallest to the largest value. If the number of data points (n) is odd, the median is the value at the position (n + 1) / 2. For example, in the data set {3, 1, 4}, you would first sort it to {1, 3, 4}. Since there are three numbers, the median is the second number, which is 3.

If the number of data points is even, the median is the average of the two middle values. For instance, in the data set {3, 1, 4, 2}, you would sort it to {1, 2, 3, 4}. Here, there are four numbers, so the median is the average of the second and third numbers. In this case, (2 + 3) / 2 = 2.5, so the median is 2.5.

The median is particularly useful because it is not affected by extremely high or low values, known as outliers. This makes it a more reliable measure of central tendency for skewed distributions compared to the mean. Understanding how to find the median helps you better analyse and interpret data sets in various contexts, from exam scores to household incomes.