According to Miller and Ranum, in order for the quick sort algorithm to execute efficiently, quick sort needs to correctly choose the which ideally results in a split point near the of the list. One method to compute the best is the technique. For example, given the list [10, 20, 9, 5, 100), the value chosen would be . After the first pass, the left partition consists of and the right partition consists of pivot value [9.5] 20 top 10 9 median of three [9, 5, 10] crossover point middle 5 maximum value largest of three bottom minimum value [9, 10, 20, 100] average of three [20, 100] 100 [10, 20, 100] [5, 10, 20]