Final answer:
The median is a statistical measure that indicates the middle value of an ordered set of data, providing a central point that is less affected by outliers compared to the mean. It is particularly useful in skewed distributions.
Step-by-step explanation:
The median is a statistical measure that represents the middle value in an ordered set of numbers. For the concept of median, it becomes clear that its primary role is to provide a central point that divides a dataset into two equal parts. In this respect, half the values are the same number or smaller, and the other half are the same number or larger than the median.
An advantage of using the median over other measures of central tendency, like the mean, is that outliers or extreme values have less effect on the median. For example, in a dataset skewed to the right, where the tail is towards the higher value, the median will be less than the mean, because the mean is affected by the high extreme values, pulling it further to the right.
Conversely, if a dataset is skewed to the left, the median will be more than the mean. As a result, in the presence of skewness, the median often provides a better representation of the center of a dataset than the mean. It's also worth noting that the median may or may not be a value actually present in the dataset.