Two Kinds of Middle
Concept
The Big Idea
The mean shares the total out equally. The median is the value in the middle once the data is in order. One outlier drags the mean but barely moves the median.
Tip
Even-sized sets
With an even count there is no single middle value, so the median is the average of the two middle numbers.
In Plain Terms & More Examples
Concept
In plain terms
The mean shares the total out equally; the median is the middle value once the numbers are in order.
Example
Mean of
Total , and , so the mean is .
Example
Median of
In order, the middle value is .