Where does median collide?

In statistics, the median is the value that splits an ordered set of numbers into two equal halves, so that half the observations fall below it and half above. Francis Galton introduced the English term median in the early 1880s to name this middle value, and its adoption is documented by David (1995). Unlike the arithmetic mean, the median is barely moved by a few extreme values, which is why figures such as household income are usually reported this way. The referent is a single number describing where the middle of a distribution sits, not an anatomical plane, a segment of a triangle, or a divider on a road.[1][2]

Unit

A single value on the same scale as the data

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Found by ordering the observations and taking the middle one, or the average of the two middle ones

In geometry, a median of a triangle is the straight segment joining one vertex to the midpoint of the opposite side; every triangle has three, and they meet at a single point called the centroid. The construction is ancient, tied to the study of centres of gravity by Archimedes, while the name median is modern, and Coxeter's Introduction to Geometry gives the standard modern treatment. The referent is a specific line segment inside a triangle, not a middle value in a data set, an anatomical plane, or a band down the centre of a highway.[3]

Unit

A line segment, measured by its length

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Drawn from a vertex to the midpoint of the opposite side; its length follows from the triangle's coordinates