What Is The Median In Math?

The median is one of the most important concepts in math, and it’s one that many people struggle to understand. It’s a way of finding the middle number in an ordered series of numbers, and it’s been used for centuries to measure the center point of a group of values. Whether you’re working with an odd or even number of values, learning how to calculate the median value can allow you to understand the data set in one glance.

How To Find The Median

To find the median of a data set, you must first put the values in an ordered list, either from least to greatest or vice versa. Once the values are in order, count the number of values that make up the set. If the number of values is odd, the median is the middle value. If the number of values is even, the median is determined by averaging the two middle values together.

Example Of The Median

Let’s take a look at an example. Say you are trying to find the median of the numbers six, four, eight, and nine. The first step is to arrange the values in ascending order, so you would have four, six, eight, and nine. Since there are an even number of values, you can calculate the median by finding the two middle numbers (in this case, six and eight) and taking their average. Six plus eight is 14, and 14 divided by two is your median—seven!

Now that you understand what the median is, you can start utilizing it in your everyday math. Whether you’re finding the center point of a set of test scores, calculating the average of a set of salaries, or solving for any other kind of data set, the median can come in handy.