To obtain the median of a given data, we need to find the middle value that separates the data into two equal parts. One simple way to do this is by arranging the data in either ascending or descending order and finding the item that falls in the middle.
If there is an odd number of items, the median is simply the middle value. For example, if we have the following set of data:
{2, 4, 5, 7, 9}
We can arrange it in ascending order as:
{2, 4, 5, 7, 9}
The middle value is 5, which is the median of the data set.
If there is an even number of items, we need to find the average of the two middle values. For example, if we have the following set of data:
{1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9}
We can arrange it in ascending order as:
{1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9}
The middle values are 4 and 6. To find the median, we take the average of 4 and 6 which is (4+6)/2=5.
Therefore, the correct option to obtain the median of a given data is to arrange the data in either ascending or descending order and find what item divides the set into two equal parts.