Question

Identify whether the following statement represents a discrete or a continuous relationship. The average person laughs 15 times per day.

a) Discrete
b) Continuous
c) Neither discrete nor continuous
d) Cannot be determined from the statement

Answer 1

The statement about the average person laughing 15 times per day represents discrete data, as it is countable and cannot have fractional values.

Step-by-step explanation:

The statement 'The average person laughs 15 times per day' represents a discrete relationship. Discrete data consist of counts that take on only certain values in a finite range. Since you can only laugh a whole number of times, not fractions of a time, the number of laughs is inherently discrete.

In mathematics, we identify data as either discrete or continuous. Discrete data are countable, often represented by integers, and do not include any in-between values. In contrast, continuous data can take any value within a range and are usually represented with measurements or decimal numbers.

Action verbs like 'laugh', when quantified as 'times per day', also lead us to classified data as discrete because we can count individual instances of laughter. In this scenario, the laughter count for a day would be a specific, countable number, thus making the relationship discrete.