Question

Which of the following is an example of a discrete variable?

a) the time it takes to get home to the university
b) the number of pills in a pot of aspirin
c) the level of glucose in the blood of diabetic patients
d) length of 1,000 locks produced by a company

Answer 1

Answer: (B)
a) False because the time it takes to get home to the university can be any positive real value. eg: It can be 45 min, or 45.5 min or 45.555 min or upto any decimal. So it's continuous random variable.

b) True Because the number of pills in a pot of aspirin can be some fixed number eg: it can be 10 or 11 or 20.. it can't be 10.1 or 10.11 etc. it can take only natural number.

c) False because the level of glucose in the blood of diabetic patients can also be a positive number but not some specific values. eg: it may be x mg/cc where x can be 2 or 0.2 or 0.02 or any positive real number within some practical range. So it's continuous.

d) False because length of 1,000 locks produced by a company can be any positive real number again. Length can be either eg: 10 meter or 10.1 or 10.11 or 10.111