Question

Weight of 7 students are given below. What is the median score ?
44, 42, 40, 47, 41, 38, 45

• A. 42
• B. 41
• C. 38
• D. 40

Hint:

The most common mistake when finding the median is forgetting to order the data first. Always arrange the data set in ascending or descending order before identifying the middle value.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

We are given a set of 7 data points (weights of students) and asked to find the median of this data.

The median is the middle value in a dataset that has been arranged in ascending or descending order.
1. Arrange the data in order.
2. If the number of observations (n) is odd, the median is the ((n+1)/(2))-th term.
3. If n is even, the median is the average of the ((n)/(2))-th and ((n)/(2)+1)-th terms.

The given weights are: 44, 42, 40, 47, 41, 38, 45.
First, we arrange these numbers in ascending order:
38, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 47
The number of students (observations) is n = 7, which is an odd number.
The position of the median is given by ((n+1)/(2))-th term.
Position = ((7+1)/(2)) = (8)/(2) = 4-th term.
Now we find the 4th term in the ordered list:
1st term = 38
2nd term = 40
3rd term = 41
4th term = 42
5th term = 44
6th term = 45
7th term = 47
The 4th term is 42. Therefore, the median weight is 42.