4-4 Continuous vs.

Discrete Data Notes

A. Continuous Data – data that can take any value (within a range); there are no gaps in
the graph.

Examples:

 A person's height: could be any value (within the range of human heights), not
just certain fixed heights
 Time in a race: you could even measure it to fractions of a second
 A dog's weight
 The length of a leaf
Graph:

B. Discrete Data – data that can only take on certain values; there are gaps in the graph.

Examples:

 The number of students in a class (you can't have half of a student)

 The letter grade on your report card
 Basketball scores
 The number of vehicles in a parking structure
Graph:
C. Practice

Classify each set of data as discrete or continuous.

1) The number of suitcases lost by an airline.

2) The height of corn plants.

3) The number of ears of corn produced.

4) The number of green M&M's in a bag.

5) The time it takes for a car battery to die.

6) The production of tomatoes by weight.

Sketch a possible graph relating the following variables.

7) The speed of a roller coaster traveling downhill to the end of the ride where
passengers get off.

Speed

Time

8) The number of people on a bus as it picks up/drops off passengers on its route.

# of People

Time