The Median

The Median is the middle score in a set of scores; the divides the distributions of scores into two halves with equal numbers of scores in each half. For example, the set of scores 2, 2, 3, 5, 7 has a median of 3 because two scores are above it and two are below it. By convention, the median of the distribution 123, 154, 160, 187 is taken to be half way between the two center values: Median = (154 + 160)/2 = 157, because there is no exact "middle score" with an even number of scores.
There are other conventions that apply to the calculation of the median, but they aren't of great importance if what we are aiming to do is understand statistics and leave the calculations to machines.
Here's a machine that will calculate medians and several other things for you:

An Online Stats Calculator

Try it out on a couple of examples:
  1. What is the median of 12.3 13.6 13.8 14.2 14.5 15.2 15.6 17.9 ?
  2. What is the median of 2 2 3 4 4 5 5 5 7 8 10 ?
  3. What is the median of 2 2 3 4 4 5 5 5 7 8 1598 ?
  4. What did you learn about the median in #3 above?