Approach strategically
To find the median of a list of numbers, first arrange the numbers
in increasing order. If there is an odd number of numbers, the median is
the middle number. If there is an even number of numbers, the median is the
average of the two middle numbers. Find sales of the five departments on the bar graph. You can find the middle value by inspecting the bar graph and finding the middle height among the five bars, which is for brand D and is about $400,000. (A) is correct.
If you didn't feel confident gathering the data this way, you could read the values from the graph. The sales for the five departments are approximately 700, 750, 350, 400, and 300. Arrange these numbers
in increasing order: 300, 350, 400, 700, and 750. The middle value is 400, so the median brand's sales for the year are approximately
$400,000. (A) is the winner.
TAKEAWAY: Graphs present information visually. Take advantage of this fact whenever you can to answer questions without performing calculations.
Analyze the graphs
Two graphs are presented: a bar graph that shows the sales numbers for five different brands of clothing by a store in the year 2015, and a pie chart that shows the percentages of brand A's total sales for six 2-month periods over the same year.
