How do you calculate the median of a set of numbers?

To calculate the median of a set of numbers, you first need to arrange the numbers in ascending order from the smallest to the largest. Once they are in order, if the set has an odd number of values, the median is the middle number. For example, in the ordered set of numbers {1, 3, 5}, the median is 3, as it is the middle value. If the set has an even number of values, the median is found by taking the average of the two middle numbers. For instance, in the ordered set {1, 2, 3, 4}, the median would be the average of 2 and 3, which is 2.5.

This method of arranging numbers and identifying the middle ensures that the median accurately reflects the central tendency of the dataset, making it a valuable measure of centrality in statistics. Therefore, the correct approach to finding the median is to order the numbers and locate the middle value, which is precisely what the answer highlights.