Q1: What is the median and how is it calculated?
The median is the middle value in a sorted list of numbers. For an odd number of values, it's the middle number. For an even number, it's the average of the two middle numbers. The median is less affected by outliers than the mean.
Q2: What is the difference between median and mean (average)?
The mean is the sum divided by count, while the median is the middle value. The median is more robust to outliers - if you have extreme values, the median better represents the "typical" value than the mean.
Q3: When should I use median instead of average?
Use median when your data has outliers or is skewed. For example, income data often uses median because a few very high incomes would skew the mean upward. Median gives a better sense of the "typical" value.
Q4: How do I find the median of an even number of values?
For an even number of values, sort them and take the average of the two middle numbers. For example, median of [10, 20, 30, 40] is (20 + 30) / 2 = 25.
Q5: Does the order of input numbers matter?
No, the calculator automatically sorts the numbers before finding the median. You can enter numbers in any order - they will be sorted in ascending order to find the middle value(s).
Q6: Can the median be a value not in the original dataset?
Yes, when there's an even number of values, the median is the average of two middle values, which may not be in the original dataset. For odd counts, the median is always one of the original values.