Question

The following are the weights, in pounds, of some dogs at a kennel: 36, 45, 29, 39, 51, 49. A. Find the median. B. Suppose one of the weights are given in kilograms. Can you still find the median? Explain.

Answer 1

A. To find the median, you must put the weights in order from lowest to highest:
29, 36, 39, 45, 49, 51
Then you find the middle number, now in this case there are 6 weights which means that you have to find the middle number in between 39 and 45, which would be 42 (you either + 3 or - 3 to get to both numbers). So the median is 42.
B. You could still find the median, but you'd have to convert the weight back into pounds. If you were not allowed to convert the weight back into pounds, then no you couldn't find the median as all numbers have to be in the same unit.
Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Median is a value or quantity that lyes at the midpoint of a frequency distribution.

A) To find the median in this data we will have to rearrange the data in either ascending or descending order and pick out the value that fall at the midpoint.

36, 45, 29, 39, 51, 49 will be rearrange as

29, 36, 39, 45, 49, 51, since we have 6 data in this distribution the midpoint value will be 39 and 45.

Therefore median = (39+45)/2

Median = 42.

B) Of course we can still find the median. All we need to do is convert the rest of the weight to kilograms.

For instance

If 51 pound is convert to kilograms

Approximately 2.205 pounds = 1kilogram

51 pounds = 23.13kg

We convert the rest of the weight to kilograms.

29 pounds = 13.15kg

36 pounds = 16.33kg

39 pounds = 17.69kg

45 pounds = 20.41kg

49 pounds = 22.23kg

Arranged in ascending order

13.15, 16.33, 17.69, 20.41, 22.23, 23.13

Median = (17.69+20.41)/2

= 38.1/2

= 19.05kg

Now let cross check by convert back to pound

19.05kg = (19.05 x 2.205)pounds

= 42.005 ~ 42pounds

So we are right.