document.write( "<A HREF=/cgi-bin/jump-to-question.mpl?question=1205735>Question 1205735</A>: <I><SPAN STYLE=\"word-break: break-all;\"> An electrician is testing the accuracy of resistors that have a nominal resistance of 15 S (ohms). She finds that the distribution of resistances is distributed normally with a mean of 15.08 S and a standard deviation of 1.52 2.<BR>\n" );
document.write( "a. Is resistance an example of a discrete or continuous variable? Justify your answer. </SPAN>\n" );
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document.write( "Answer: <font color=red size=4>continuous</font>\r<BR>\n" );
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document.write( "Reason\r<BR>\n" );
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document.write( "We can pick any two positive distinct resistance values to compute the midpoint.<BR>\n" );
document.write( "Examples: <BR>\n" );
document.write( "The midpoint of 10 ohms and 12 ohms is 11 ohms.<BR>\n" );
document.write( "The midpoint of 11 ohms and 12 ohms is 11.5 ohms.<BR>\n" );
document.write( "The midpoint of 11.5 ohms and 12 ohms is 11.75 ohms.\r<BR>\n" );
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document.write( "Each midpoint is valid and possible. The process of computing the midpoint can be done indefinitely.<BR>\n" );
document.write( "This is why the variable is <font color=red>continuous</font>\r<BR>\n" );
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document.write( "What's something that's discrete?<BR>\n" );
document.write( "An example would be something like \"The number of resistors to check\".<BR>\n" );
document.write( "It doesn't make sense to have 11.75 resistors since we can only have a nonnegative whole number of them (0,1,2,3,...).<BR>\n" );
document.write( "Sometimes a midpoint is valid (say between 2 and 4) but other times a midpoint is not valid (eg: between 3 and 4)\r<BR>\n" );
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document.write( "If we focused on the discrete set {1,2,3,4} then it's clear that it's finite.<BR>\n" );
document.write( "Meanwhile a continuous set of real numbers between 1 and 4 is infinite.<BR>\n" );
document.write( "So this is another key distinction between discrete and continuous.<BR>\n" );
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