INDEPENDENT LEARNING SHEET 1

LEARNING COMPETENCIES:
• Illustrates a random variable (discrete and continuous). M11/12SP-IIIa-1
• Distinguishes between a discrete and a continuous random variable. M11/12SP-IIIa-2

LEARNING CONCEPTS:

BROAD CLASSIFICATION OF VARIABLES

Variables can be broadly classified as either quantitative or qualitative, with the latter further classified into discrete
and continuous types.

(1) Qualitative variables express a categorical attribute, such as sex (male or female), religion, marital status, region of
residence, highest educational attainment. Qualitative variables do not strictly take on numeric values (although we can have
numeric codes for them, e.g., for sex variable, 1 and 2 may refer to male, and female, respectively). Qualitative data answer
questions “what kind.” Sometimes, there is a sense of ordering in qualitative data, e.g., income data grouped into high, middle,
and low-income status. Data on sex or religion do not have the sense of ordering, as there is no such thing as a weaker or
stronger sex, and a better or worse religion. Qualitative variables are sometimes referred to as categorical variables.

(2) Quantitative (otherwise called numerical) data, whose sizes are meaningful, answer questions such as “how much” or “how
many”. Quantitative variables have actual units of measure. Examples of quantitative variables include the height, weight,
number of registered cars, household size, and total household expenditures/income of survey respondents. Quantitative data
may be further classified into:

a. Discrete data are those data that can be counted, e.g., the number of days for cellphones to fail, the ages of survey
respondents measured to the nearest year, and the number of patients in a hospital. These data assume only (a finite or
infinitely) countable number of values.
b. Continuous data are those that can be measured, e.g. the exact height of a survey respondent and the exact volume of
some liquid substance. The possible values are uncountably infinite.
 Directed Practice:
Which of the variables are qualitative? Which are quantitative? Among the quantitative variables, classify them further as
discrete or continuous.
1. highest educational attainment
2. predominant hair color
3. body temperature
4. civil status
5. brand of laundry soap being used
6. total household expenditures last month in pesos
7. number of children in a household
8. number of hours standing in queue while waiting to be served by a bank teller

See answers key at the end of the page.

INDEPENDENT TASK:
Identify whether the given are discrete or continuous variables.
_________1. pH level of an acid
_________2. Number of cards drawn
_________3. Length of a piece of chalk
_________4. Body temperature of a person
_________5. Cloth needed to make a dress
_________6. Total number of all animals in a farm
_________7. Power consumption of an appliances
_________8. Number of appliances in a household
_________9. Number of pages in a chapter of a book
_________10. Total number of spots in rolling two dice

Prepared by:

MS. MARY GRACE BERMIDO BUCAD

Statistics and Probability Teacher

(quantitative: discrete) 8.
(quantitative: discrete) 7.
(quantitative: discrete) 6.
(qualitative) 5.
(qualitative) 4.
(quantitative: continuous) 3.
(qualitative) 2.
(qualitative) 1.

Answers Key for Directed Practice