Question

The median of the following items 25, 15, 23, 40, 27, 25, 23, 25, and 20 is
A) 27
B) 40
C) 25
D) 23

Answer 1

To find the median, it is first of all necessary to arrange the data in ascending order. Then we have to determine the number of values in the given data set. If the number of values is odd then the middle value will be the median. If the number of values is even then we will have to take the average of the middle two values as the median for the given data set.

Complete step-by-step answer:
Median is the middle value of the set of data when the data is arranged in ascending order. The median of data has a higher frequency if the data is distributed symmetrically.
We will arrange the given data in ascending order as 15, 20, 23, 23, 25, 25, 25, 27, and 40.
Also, the number of values here is 9, which is an odd number. As we know if the number of values is odd in the data, then the middle value will be the median. For 9 numbers, the middle value will be the ${5^{th}}$ number from either side.
In the given data, as we can see that the ${5^{th}}$ value is 25.
Hence, the median of the data will be 25.

Option C is the correct answer.

Note: To find the median, it is important to, first of all, arrange the given numbers in ascending order. Median does not indicate the average of the data set, however, it is more or less close to the mean of the data, this is because if the frequency of a particular number is higher than the median will be closer to that number, thus closer to the mean.