GED Math in Real Life… Mean? Median?

Hey. I’ve been looking for ways to mix up GED preparation with real life… and last time I talked about how you can look up information about different jobs on http://www.bls.gov/oco/. I looked up the information about being a mechanic. And it kept talking about “median.”

Median hourly earnings of automotive service technicians and mechanics, including commission, were $15.60 in May 2004. . . . Median annual earnings in the industries employing the largest numbers of service technicians in May 2004 were as follows:

Local government…..$38,160
Automobile dealers…..38,060
Automotive repair and maintenance…..28,810
Gasoline stations…..28,030
Automotive parts, accessories, and tire stores…..27,180

So, I noticed this word median on the GED test and on online GED study information. So, I figure this will help with GED preparation. I looked it up, and here’s the scoop…

Mean is what normal people call an average… you have a bunch of numbers, and you add them together and divide by how many numbers there were. So, if I have 1, 5, 5, and 5, I add them together… 16… and divide by 4 (I added 4 numbers)… and I get a mean of 4.

Okay. Median is the number in the middle… so if I had five numbers and put them in order, the median would be the one in the center. (Median of 1, 3, 5, 5, 8 is 5.) If you have an even number of numbers, you average the middle two. (Median of 1, 3, 5, 8 is 4… halfway between 3 and 5).

So, when they give the median, it means half of all people earn more money, and half earn less money. Half of all mechanics earn less than $15 bucks an hour? I gotta get into somethin’ that pays more! So I guess I gotta get my GED!