What is an example of continuous data?

An example of continuous data is the height of students in a classroom measured in centimetres.

Continuous data can take any value within a given range, meaning it can be measured to any level of precision. For instance, when measuring the height of students, you might find one student is 150.2 cm tall, another is 160.5 cm, and yet another is 155.75 cm. These measurements can be as precise as your measuring tool allows, and there are no gaps between possible values.

In contrast to discrete data, which can only take specific values (like the number of students in a classroom), continuous data can be divided and subdivided into finer and finer increments. This makes continuous data particularly useful for representing measurements that can vary smoothly and without interruption.

Other examples of continuous data include time, temperature, and weight. For example, the time it takes for a student to run 100 metres could be 12.34 seconds, 12.345 seconds, or even more precise, depending on the timing equipment used. Similarly, the temperature in a room could be 20.1°C, 20.12°C, or 20.123°C, depending on the precision of the thermometer.

Understanding continuous data is important because it allows us to analyse and interpret real-world phenomena with a high degree of accuracy. This type of data is often represented using graphs like histograms or line graphs, which help to visualise how the data is distributed and identify patterns or trends.