Reference

Types of Quantities

Concept

Discrete Quantity

A discrete quantity is a quantity that can only take distinct, separate values in an interval. There are no values between these distinct values. The number of students in a class, the number of tickets for a concert, and the number of goals scored in a soccer match are examples of discrete quantities. These values are countable and typically represented by integers or whole numbers.

Note that the value of the quantity can only be specific amounts such as

0,

1,

2,

as buying a fraction of the ticket is not an option. Although discrete quantities are often restricted to whole numbers, there are exceptions. Depending on the context, discrete quantities can take values from a set like

{- 0.8, - 0.4, 0, 0.4, 0.8} .

Concept

Continuous Quantity

A quantity that can take any value within a given interval is a continuous quantity. Such quantities not limited to specific, separate values, and they can be measured very precisely. Length, time, temperature, weight, and age are examples of continuous quantities.

Each point on the number line corresponds to a specific age, and the line itself represents the possible ages. A person's age can be any real number, depending on the precision of the measurement. For example, using whole years, this person was

5

years old. However, with more precise measurements, their age could be expressed as

5.5

years,

8

years and

2

months, and even

8

years and

88

days.

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