Question

Knowing whether a variable is categorical or quantitative will help us determine an appropriate visual display or testing procedure. Practice this skill by selecting which these variables are quantitative or categorical. The price in dollars of statistics textbooks. The working status of a computer part (working/not working). The gender of faculty in the mechanical engineering department. The number of miles until failure of a certain brand of tires. The political party affiliation of students at OSU. The time to complete an exam. The shirt sizes of a running club

Answer 1

Answer and explanation:

First, let's understand the difference between categorical and quantitative variables. A quantitative variable can also be called a numerical variable. As this name suggests, it involves numbers. It can be measured numerically and be used in calculations - this is important, because not everything that has numbers is used in calculations; take the zip code as an example. On the other hand, a categorical variable cannot be expressed numerically in the same way described above. It is related to a certain quality or characteristic of something. For instance, you can attribute the number one to a person who is sick and the number two to a person who is not sick. The numbers are just a representation of the qualities; they won't be used in calculations. Now, we can safely judge the options given:

The price in dollars of statistics textbooks. --> quantitative

The working status of a computer part (working/not working). --> categorical

The gender of faculty in the mechanical engineering department. --> categorical

The number of miles until failure of a certain brand of tires. --> quantitative

The political party affiliation of students at OSU. --> categorical

The time to complete an exam. --> quantitative

The shirt sizes of a running club. --> categorical