What does the median represent in a data set?

The median represents the middle value when the data set is ordered from lowest to highest. When you arrange a data set in ascending order, the median is the value that separates the higher half from the lower half. If there is an odd number of observations, the median is simply the middle number. If the number of observations is even, the median is calculated by taking the average of the two middle numbers. This makes the median a robust measure of central tendency, as it is not influenced by extreme values or outliers, providing a more accurate representation of the dataset's central location in such cases.