The middle value in a sorted data set is called the median. The median is a measure of central tendency that represents the middle point of a data set when it is organized in ascending or descending order.
To determine the median, you must first arrange the data from smallest to largest. If the number of data points is odd, the median is the value located in the center of the list. For example, in the sorted data set {1, 3, 5}, the median is 3 because it is the middle number. If the number of data points is even, the median is calculated by taking the average of the two middle values. For instance, in the sorted data set {1, 3, 5, 7}, the median would be (3 + 5) / 2 = 4.
The median is particularly useful because it is not influenced by extreme values, making it a more robust measure of central tendency in skewed distributions.