How to Find the Median in a Range

Median is the middle number in a set or series of numbers. For a set or sequence of numbers containing an odd number of elements, the search is easy. If the number of elements is even, it’s a bit more difficult. So how to find the median easily and accurately? We invite you to continue reading:

Table of Contents

Finding the Median of a Set of Numbers consisting of an Odd Number of Elements

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Arrange the elements in a set or sequence of numbers in order from smallest to largest. If the positions of the numbers are not in a straight line, remember to arrange them again.

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Find the element located in the middle of the array of numbers just sorted. That is, before and after this number have the same number of elements. The number you just found is the median. For this step, we use the counting method to have the highest accuracy.

In the picture above, we see that the number 3 has 2 numbers in front of it, behind it too. Thereby we conclude that it is the element located in the middle of the sequence.

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It is done. The median of a sequence or set consisting of an odd number of elements is the number of that sequence or set. There will never be another median that is not in the sequence in this case.

Finding the Median of a Set of Numbers consisting of an Even Number of Elements

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We will still arrange the elements in the set or sequence of numbers in order from smallest to largest. But now there will be 2 elements that are “in the middle” of the set or sequence of numbers.

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Find the average of 2 numbers in the middle of the sequence (set) we just found. In this example, 2 and 3 are in the middle. So we take their average and we get 2.5.

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And 2.5 is also the median in this case. Through this we can conclude that: The median of a set or sequence of numbers is not necessarily an element in that set or sequence.

Steps

Finding the Median of a Set of Numbers consisting of an Odd Number of Elements

Finding the Median of a Set of Numbers consisting of an Even Number of Elements

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