multiple choice: Type of data

Question

The number of people who live in a particular country is what type of data?

A). Discrete, Qualitative, and Ratio.

B). Discrete, Quantitative, and Ratio.

C). Discrete, Quantitative, and Interval.

D). Discrete, Continuous, and Nominal.

E). Discrete, Quantitative, and Nominal.

Answer 1

To answer this question, you need to understand the following definitions/descriptions:

Discrete vs. Continuous

Discrete data cannot have data points between two other points. For example, you have either 1 dog or 2 dogs, but it's not possible to have 2.75 dogs (even if you have a dog with only three legs).

Continuous data can have data points between two other points. For example, you can measure the weight of a cookie down to micrograms or even further if you want. It's very possible to have values between the "major" points on the scale.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative

Quantitative data answers the question of how many of something there is. An example is thinking about how many ice cream cones you have.

Qualitative data answers the question of what kind of something there is. An example is thinking about what different flavors of ice cream you have.

Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, and Ratio Data

Nominal variables put things in categories. There is no quantity associated with the categories and you can't put things in order. Favorite type of pet (cat, dog, hedgehog, iguana) is a nominal variable.

Ordinal variables allow you to put things in order, but there's no predictable interval between places on your scale. For example, you know that a PG-13 movie is going to have more "questionable content" than a G movie, but you don't know precisely what that means (i.e. there's no set number of swear words that elevates a rating).

Interval variables allow you to order things from smallest to largest (or the reverse) AND they have predictable intervals between points on the scale. An example is the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit for a certain county in a given year. The difference between 10 and 11 degrees is the same (objectively, anyway) as the difference between 93 and 94 degrees.

Ratio variables are like interval variables, but they have an absolute zero point. That means it's possible to have none of whatever it is you are measuring. The amount of rainfall in a given county during a year is an example of a ratio scale. It's possible (though not very good, environmentally speaking) to have no rainfall at all. It's NOT possible, though, to have no temperature. You can have a very cold temperature, but not an absence of one. Temperature is Interval, and Rainfall is ratio.

The answer you've been waiting for

The number of people who live in a country is:

Discrete (we can't have fractional numbers of people)

Quantitative (we are interested in how many)

Ratio (it's possible that no one lives in a country, though that would be weird)

The answer is B.