Median trouble

kvcpk wrote:Median has to be either a or b or c
Observe the answer choices, they are all in tems of a and c. Which means question expects us to choose b as median.
Now going thru options:
a can be equal to b and be the median
a+c canequal 4b
a+c can equal 7b
b can equal b
a+c cannot equal b. because a+c will be greater than b [since a,b,c are positive.]

pick 5

mj78ind wrote:

kvcpk wrote:Median has to be either a or b or c
Observe the answer choices, they are all in tems of a and c. Which means question expects us to choose b as median.
Now going thru options:
a can be equal to b and be the median
a+c canequal 4b
a+c can equal 7b
b can equal b
a+c cannot equal b. because a+c will be greater than b [since a,b,c are positive.]

pick 5

@kvcpk ......... nice analysis .......one question though, why a + c > b has to be true? say a = 3, b = 8, c = 5 and the median is 5?

kvcpk wrote:

mj78ind wrote:

kvcpk wrote:Median has to be either a or b or c
Observe the answer choices, they are all in tems of a and c. Which means question expects us to choose b as median.
Now going thru options:
a can be equal to b and be the median
a+c canequal 4b
a+c can equal 7b
b can equal b
a+c cannot equal b. because a+c will be greater than b [since a,b,c are positive.]

pick 5

@kvcpk ......... nice analysis .......one question though, why a + c > b has to be true? say a = 3, b = 8, c = 5 and the median is 5?

It is not given that a,b,c are in ascending order. My analysis above works when a,b,c are in ascending order. I just used this approach to eliminate choices.

When a,b,c are not in ascending order your example looks good. But, even in your case, a+c = 8 is not equal to median =5

Hope this helps!!

mj78ind wrote: @kvcpk, Yup ....... I agree, I was just trying to point out that we can't use the strategy used by you to get an answer. However, we can eliminate all other choices using your analysis........