Question

How do you find the median of 4 numbers?

Answer 1

The Median is the "middle value" of a sorted list of numbers.

To find the Median, place the numbers in value order and find the middle value.

Explanation:

There are two possibilities - an odd number and an even number of values.

Example 1: An odd number of values:

find the Median of 12, 3 and 5
Put them in order:

`3, color(red)(5), 12`

The middle is 5, so the median is 5.

Example 2: An even number of values.

3, 13, 7, 5, 21, 23, 23, 40, 23, 14, 12, 56, 23, 29

When we put those numbers in order we have:

3, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 21, 23, 23, 23, 23, 29, 40, 56

There are now fourteen numbers and so we don't have just one middle number, we have a pair of middle numbers:

`3, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, color(blue)(21 ,23` , 23, 23, 23, 29, 40, 56*

In this example the middle numbers are 21 and 23.

To find the value halfway between them, add them together and divide by 2:

Median `= color(blue)((21 + 23))/2 = 44`

So the Median in this example is 22.

(Note that 22 was not in the list of numbers ... but that is OK because half the numbers in the list are less, and half the numbers are greater than 22.)