Question

Find the median of the following data $12,17,3,14,5,8,7,15$.

Answer 1

Compute the median of the data

First, we will arrange the numbers in ascending order. That is

$3,5,7,8,12,14,15,17$

The number of observations, $n=8$.

So here the median is the mean of $\frac{n}{2}$th term and $\left(\frac{n}{2}+1\right)$th term. That is,

$\frac{n}{2}=\frac{8}{2}$th term

$=4$th term

and

$\frac{n}{2}+1=\frac{8}{2}+1$th term

$=5$th term

Here the $4$th term is $8$ and $5$th term is $12$. That is

Median $=\frac{8+12}{2}$

$$\begin{gathered} =\frac{20}{2} \\ =10 \end{gathered}$$

Hence, the median of the following data $12,17,3,14,5,8,7,15$ is $10$.