What is the median on a stem and leaf diagram?

Answer 1

this is not a very helpful site.

Look at the leaf column. Count the number of entries in the leaf column. Divide that number by 2. If the number of entries was odd, then move up to the next whole number. For example, if there were 11 entries in the leaf column, then divide by 2 to get 5.5. Move up to 6. Take the sixth entry in the leaf column. Combine that with the entry in the stem column to get the mean. If the number of entries in the leaf column was even, then divide the number of entries by 2 as before. For example, if there were 10 entries in the leaf column, then divide by 2 to get 5. In this case, take the 5th and the sixth entries in the leaf column and combine them with their stem entries. Add together these two numbers, then divide by 2 to get the median.

Here are a couple of examples

Stem Leaf

1 - 0 1 3 5

2 - 4 6

4 - 5 7

7 - 1 2

9 - 3

Count the number of entries in the leaf column. There are 11 entries. Divide by 2 to get 5.5. Move up to the next whole number to get to 6. Take the sixth entry in the leaf column, which is the 6 with stem 2. Combine the stem and leaf to get 26, which is the median.

Here is another example

Stem Leaf

1 - 1 2

3 - 5 6 7

8 - 0 2

9 - 1 2 8

Count the number of entries in the leaf column, which is 10. Divide by 2 to get 5. Since the number of entries was even, add together the 5th and sixth entries combined with their stems and divide by 2.

The fifth and sixth entries are 7 with stem 3 and 0 with stem 8. Combine the leaves with their stems to get 37 and 80. Added together is 37 + 80 = 117. Divide by 2. 117/2 = 58.5. The median is 58.5.

This web site deleted my spacing; so to clarify, the first digit in each row above is the stem. The rest of the digits in each row are the leaves. I'll put a dash between the stems and the leaves to make it easier to read.