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The median of the observations 4,14,11,9,7,8,9,12,4 and 6 is:
9.5
9
8.5
8
8.5
Arrange the data in ascending order and pick the middle two values; their average is the median since the number of observations is even.
The observations are: 4, 14, 11, 9, 7, 8, 9, 12, 4, 6
Median=тОйтОитОзтАЛ(2n+1тАЛ)th┬аobservation2(2nтАЛ)th+(2nтАЛ+1)thтАЛ┬аobservationтАЛif┬аn┬аis┬аoddif┬аn┬аis┬аevenтАЛ
Arrange the data in ascending order and pick the middle two values; their average is the median since the number of observations is even.
Forgetting to sort the numbers in ascending order before finding the middle value is the most common mistake.
Sort the observations
First, we arrange the given list of numbers {4, 14, 11, 9, 7, 8, 9, 12, 4, 6} in ascending order.
4,4,6,7,8,9,9,11,12,14
Count the total observations
Count the total number of terms, denoted by n. Here, n=10, which is an even number.
n=10
Apply the median formula
Since n=10 is even, the median is the average of the 5th and 6th terms.
Median=25th+6thтАЛ
Calculate the final result
The 5th term is 8 and the 6th term is 9. Taking the average of these two values gives the median: (8+9)/2=8.5.
Median=28+9тАЛ=217тАЛ=8.5
C is correct because the median of the sorted data set is 8.5.
This concept is essential for the Mean-Median-Mode relationship in statistics and data interpretation questions frequently appearing in competitive exams.