Choose a college student at random. Decide whether each of the following is a discrete or continuous random variable: 1. The number of courses the student takes this semester:
2. The student's height:
3. The student's (exact) body temperature:
4. The number of siblings the student has:
5. The (exact) time the student spends doing school work during a week:
6. The number of alcoholic beverages that the student drinks in a typical week

1. Discrete

2. Continuous

3. Continuous

4. Discrete

5. Continuous

6. Discrete

Step-by-step explanation:

Continuous:

Real numbers, can be integer, decimal, etc.

Discrete:

Only integer(countable values). So can be 0,1,2...

1. The number of courses the student takes this semester:

You can take 1 course, 2 courses, 3 courses, ...

Only countable values, the student cannot take 2.5 courses, for example. So discrete

2. The student's height:

Can be decimal numbers, for example, 1.8 meters. So continuous.

3. The student's (exact) body temperature:

Can be decimal numbers, for example, 96.7 ºF. Continuous.

4. The number of siblings the student has:

Cannot be decimal.

You can have 0, 1, 2, ..., 20,... siblings

Discrete

5. The (exact) time the student spends doing school work during a week:

Can be decimal, for example, 2.5 hours.

Continuous

6. The number of alcoholic beverages that the student drinks in a typical week

Zero, one, two,...

Discrete

1) 2/5

2) zero=0/1

3) zero=0/2

4) -4/5

5) undefined=3/0