Each day last week you sold 32, 45, 47, 63, and 72 product accessories. What was the median number of accessories sold?
The correct answer and explanation is:
Let’s find the median number of product accessories sold last week given these daily sales:
32, 45, 47, 63, 72
Step 1: Arrange the data in order
The sales are already arranged from smallest to largest:
32, 45, 47, 63, 72
Step 2: Understand what the median is
The median is the middle value in a data set when the numbers are arranged in order. It divides the data into two halves — half the numbers are below it, and half are above it.
Step 3: Find the middle value
Since there are 5 numbers (an odd number of values), the median is the 3rd number in the ordered list.
Counting the positions:
1st = 32
2nd = 45
3rd = 47 ← median
4th = 63
5th = 72
Answer: The median number of accessories sold is 47.
Explanation in detail (about 300 words):
The median is a measure of central tendency that helps us understand the “middle” value of a data set. Unlike the mean, which averages all values, the median gives the central number without being affected by extremely high or low values. This makes the median especially useful when the data might be skewed or when outliers exist.
In this case, you recorded sales numbers for five days: 32, 45, 47, 63, and 72. To find the median, the first step is to arrange the numbers in numerical order. Here, the numbers are already sorted from the smallest (32) to the largest (72).
Because there are 5 numbers, which is an odd count, the median is simply the middle value — the number that has an equal amount of data points on both sides. To find it, count to the middle position using the formula: Number of values+12=5+12=3\frac{\text{Number of values} + 1}{2} = \frac{5 + 1}{2} = 3
So, the 3rd number in the ordered list is the median.
Looking at the list, the 3rd value is 47. This means that half the days you sold fewer than or equal to 47 accessories, and half the days you sold more than or equal to 47 accessories.
This measure helps summarize your sales data by showing a “typical” day without being influenced by very high sales on one day (like 72) or very low sales on another (like 32). Thus, the median number of accessories sold per day last week was 47.