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continuous vs. discrete?
Hello, I'm a little confused about my stats homework, pls help!
so I know that discrete means whole numbers while continuous means intervals and/or real numbers but I'm not sure about these because they "specified on the units" so even if you were like 53 inches or something, does that mean the cm, and mm do not count in that case and you would round to a whole number?:
height (in inches) : discrete or continuous
the average number of hours of sleep each night: discrete or continuous
2 Answers
- ?Lv 78 months ago
If you draw a line with dots, then it is not continuous. This is because the value between two dots is not known.
If you draw a straight line, then it is continuous. Because, the value is known every where.
Real numbers are discontinuous.
- davidLv 78 months ago
Discrete does NOT mean "whole numbers".
a length of 15.3 inches is a discrete measurement.
--- but height (in inches or any other unit) is continuous. == height can be 14 or 14.04 or 14,3258 ... the number of decimals reported depend on the accuracy of the instrument used to do the measuring .. but height can be any integer, or rational number or any irrational number ... any number on the entire number line, so, in general, all heights are a continuous function.
==== That is what continuous means -- that the variable can have values on the entire number line (or at least a segment of that line)
=== Average number of hours of sleep (notice there is no 'rule' given to round this average) so this again it can be any value on that segment of the number line that represents 'night'. So this is also continuous.
How much money is in your pocket? (not an average ,, but right now) --- can you have $19.378? === no, not in the US ... 19 is 19 dollars and that is possible. .38 is 38 cents and that is possible. BUT 0.008? is not possible ... this is a discrete variable
On the other hand look at this ... What is the AVERAGE amunt of money amount of money in the pockets of everyone in this room? === if there are ten people -- add all their money and divide by 10 ... this creates the possibility of 0.008 or 8 tenths of a cent == different numbers of people in the room and the possibility of more decimals is possible. 7 people .. let's say all have empty pockets except one person === George has 4 quarters,, the average is 1.00/7 = $0.142857142857142857... a repeating decimal === so it looks like a continuous function right? Think about it...
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