The median is the midpoint of the distribution; half of the observations lie above the median and half lie below. (The median of 3, 4, 5, 6, and 102 is 5.) Now, the clever reader will see that there is a sizable difference between 24 and 5. If, for some reason, I would like to describe this group of numbers in a way that makes it look big, I will focus on the mean. If I want to make it look smaller, I will cite the median.
