The Manga Guide to Statistics

3. Median

What is it

this time?

Now, back to

the score

card.

Let's

ignore

teams a

and b for

now, and

lk at

team c...

Here, I don't

think you

can reay

say that the

average is

"roughly the

score of each

person."

I agr. The average

is above 100...but

5 people scored

below 100.

In cases like this,

when there is a value

that is extremely

large or sma,

it is more

aropriate to use

the median instead

of the mean.

Median?

Shinobu

was

very

gd.

Results of bowling tournament

Team A

SCORE

Rui-Rui

Jun

Yumi

Shizuka

Touko

Kaede

Kimiko

Megumi

Yoshimi

Mei

Kaori

Yukiko

Shinobu

Yuka

Sakura

Kanako

Kumiko

Hirono

Team B Team C

SCORE

SCORE

44 Chapter 2

Player Player Player

The Median is

the value that

comes in the

mile when you

put the values

in order from

smaest to

largest.

First, we sort the

scores of each

team by their sizes.

If the number of

values is o, the

score that is in the

mile is the median.

Can you calculate

the median of

team c?

If the number of values

is even, as in the case

of this bowling game,

the average of the two

values in the mile is the

median.

It's

(77 + 88) ÷ 2 = 82.5.

Coect!

NUMBER OF values

=

O

NUMBER OF values

=

EVEN

Median

Median is the average

of these two

Team A

Team B

Team C

Geing the Big Picture: Understanding Numerical Data 45

One more tip

in regard to

averages...

Another

tip instead

of cake...

Are you saving any

money?

True, you can't eat a tip, but

this is as gd as cake...

Though the total of my

aount is sti le

than ¥10,000.*

Yes, I am.

Then you must wonder

why the "average savings"

reported in newspapers

and on tv news is so high.

Yes, I do. My savings

doesn't come close,

and even my dad does

not sm to be that

rich.

*less than $100

46 Chapter 2

Are you

listening?

You

dampen my

spirits...

The average is high

because of some

miionaires.

You nd not be

disaointed because

your savings is

much le than the

average.

In such cases, the median

is much closer to

coon people.

I must may a

rich guy whose

savings is way

higher than the

median!

Miionaires...

Geing the Big Picture: Understanding Numerical Data 47