a The total number of goals scored by a soccer team in a sea

(a) The total number of goals scored by a soccer team in a season

Discrete or Continuous

(b) The height of a fifth-grade boy

Discrete or Continuous

(c) The number of damaged chromosomes on a petri dish following irradiation

Discrete or Continuous

(d) The number of tickets purchased by a caller on a Rose Bowl ticket hotline

Discrete or Continuous

Solution

Discrete data can only take particular values. There may potentially be an infinite number of those values, but each is distinct and there\'s no grey area in between. Discrete data can be numeric -- like numbers of apples -- but it can also be categorical -- like red or blue, or male or female, or good or bad.

Continuous data are not restricted to defined separate values, but can occupy any value over a continuous range. Between any two continuous data values there may be an infinite number of others. Continuous data are always essentially numeric.

Data can be Descriptive (like \"high\" or \"fast\") or Numerical (numbers).

And Numerical Data can be Discrete or Continuous:

Discrete data is counted,
Continuous data is measured

(a) The total number of goals scored by a soccer team in a season

Discrete or Continuous

Answer is Discrete.

(b) The height of a fifth-grade boy

Discrete or Continuous

Answer is Continuous.

(c) The number of damaged chromosomes on a petri dish following irradiation.

Answer is discrete.

(c) The number of damaged chromosomes on a petri dish following irradiation

Answer is discrete.