Types of Data
Maths: KS3, topic 6.3.1
Types of Data
Data can be discrete, continuous, or qualitative.
Example 1
- A farmer is weighing each of his cows. The cows weigh 89.6kg, 107.8kg, 120.25kg, 98.2kg, and 130.1kg. What type of data is this?
- This data is continuous
- The definition for continuous data is that it is measurable and can be any value in a given range
Example 2
- A group of students is asked about their favourite colour. Some of their answers were: "Orange", "Green", "Red" and "Yellow". What type of data is this?
- This data is qualitative
- If a piece of data is not numerical, i.e: words, opinions, visual, or audio, it is classified as qualitative
Example 3
- A breakdown service is recording information on the number of seats in each car. Some results were: 2, 3, 4, 4, and 6. What type of data is this?
- This data is discrete
- The definition for discrete data is that it is countable and is typically whole numbers; other examples include the number of people in a room, or the results from a dice roll.