Topic 2: Collecting and Representing Data

A question from a questionnaire used in a survey is shown.

What type of data is being collected by this question?

• Categorical, nominal

• Categorical, ordinal

• Quantitative, continuous

• Quantitative, discrete

A group of 200 people is chosen from a population of 25 000 people, in such a way that every member of the population has an equal chance of being included the group.

Which term describes this process?

• Categorical Sampling

•   Continuous Sampling

• Quantitative Sampling

• Random Sampling

Geoff is constructing a survey on entertainment options for people in his town.

One question from the survey is shown.

What type of data is being collected by this question?

• Categorical, nominal

• Categorical, ordinal

• Quantitative, continuous

• Quantitative, discrete

Suzie records the colour of each car that travels through an intersection for an hour. The data recorded can be classified as:

• Continuous Quantitative

• Discrete Quantitative

• Ordinal Categorical

• Nominal Categorical

An example of categorical data is:

• The number of cars passing through an intersection

• The length of each car in a car park.

• The number of kilometres shown on the odometer of each car

• The colour of each car in a car park

Nola conducts an opinion poll. The first question asks the voting intention of the respondent, giving the choices of Liberal, National, Labor or Greens. The data collected from this question is:

• Discrete, quantitative data

• Continuous, quantitative data

• Categorical data

• Systematic data

Leica collects information from the members of her netball team, which she needs to order uniforms. Which is an example of categorical data?

• Their waist measurements in mm

• Their height in cm

• The number of shirts they want

• Their shirt sizes (S, M, L, XL….)

In a survey, Reuben is asked to give some information about himself. The answers to which of following questions would provide data which is quantitative and discrete?

• Gender ( M or F)  

• Height

• Number of siblings

• Eye colour

Alex works in an electrical store and asks each customer who purchases an item their postcode. The type of data which Alex is collecting is:

• Categorical

• Discrete numerical

• Continuous numerical

• Personal

Answer explanation

Even though postcodes are numerical, the numbers are categories. 2794 is the four digit represention of Cowra and surrounding regions.

In fact, they would be categorical nominal because they can't be ordered. The numbers could be placed in ascending or descending order, but it would have no more meaning than placing the names of the regions they represent (or your favourite sport, or the type of pet you own) in alphabetical order.

What is the difference in length between the longest and shortest rivers shown on the graph?

• 3800 km

• 6500 km

• 3200 km

• 2900 km