The distribution below gives the weights of 30 students of a class. Find the median weight of the students.

Question :

Weight in (kg) 40 – 45 45 – 50 50 – 55 55 – 60 60 – 65 65 – 70 70 – 75
Number of students 2 3 8 6 6 3 2

Solution :

We prepare the following table to compute the median :

Weight in (kg) Number of students (frequency) Cumulative Frequency
40 – 45 2 2
45 – 50 3 5
50 – 55 8 13
55 – 60 6 19
60 – 65 6 25
65 – 70 3 38
70 – 75 2 30

We have : n = 30, So, \(n\over 2\) = 15

The cumulative frequency just greater than \(n\over 2\) is 19 and the corresponding the class is (55 – 60).

Thus, (55 – 60) is the median class such that \(n\over 2\) = 15, l = 55, f = 6, cf = 13 and h = 5.

Substituting these values in the formula,

Median = l + (\({n\over 2} – cf\over f\))(h)

= 55 + (\(15 – 13\over 6\))(5) = 55 + \(2\over 6\)(5) = 55 + 1.67 = 56.67

Hence, the median weight is 56.67 kg

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *