What is the meaning of discrete and continuous data?
In: Mathematics
Discrete data is data sampled in some time interval, continuous data is data that is sampled… well… continuously.
A good way to think about it is a [seismograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Kinemetrics_seismograph.jpg/640px-Kinemetrics_seismograph.jpg). It has an “infinite” piece of paper that is rolling under the needle at all times, so it draws an “infinite” line (it plots continuous data).
Now imagine that instead of rolling piece of paper we had a camera taking pictures of the needle, at a frequency of 1000 pictures per second, and each time a picture is taken, a dot is added in the paper signaling the place where the needle was (it would plot discrete data).
If you zoom out they both look the same but if you zoom in a lot to see where was the needle at exactly 8 hours, 8 minutes, 8 seconds and 0.0008 milliseconds, you would see the line in the continuous data but you would find a dot at 0.000 milliseconds, another dot at 0.001 milliseconds and nothing in between, so you can’t tell where the needle was at 0.0008.
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