Sign In
What is the main difference between continuous data and discrete data? Can you think of examples of these kinds of data?
See solution.
We want to describe the difference between the graphs of the two types of data sets. Continuous Data vs Discrete Data Before we do that, let's focus on the main differences between these two types of data.
| Continuous Data |
|---|
| Amount of water used in a household |
| Stock price of a company |
| Weight of a watermelon |
A watermelon can weigh 3 pounds, 9 pounds, or anything between these two values. This is why the weight of a watermelon is an example of continuous data. In general, continuous quantities are uncountable.
Discrete data, on the other hand, has spaces between possible data values. Let's take a look at some real-life examples.
| Discrete Data |
|---|
| Number of pans in a household |
| Number of times we have skied |
| Daily number of customers in a shop |
We can have 3 or 4 pans at our home but we cannot have 3.5 pans. This is why the number of pans in a household is a type of discrete data. In general, discrete quantities are countable.
As we said before, continuous data has no space between the data values. As a result, the graph of continuous data is a solid line.
Discrete data has spaces between the data values. This is why the graph of discrete data is represented by points.
This means that we can tell if data is continuous or discrete by looking at its graph.
