CFA Practice Question

There are 985 practice questions for this topic.

CFA Practice Question

A medical center wants to estimate the average number of patients that visit their facility monthly. They think that this number varies from 500 to 1400. Should they opt to treat the number of monthly patients as a continuous or a discrete random variable?

A. discrete
B. continuous
C. either one
Correct Answer: B

User Contributed Comments 18

User Comment
danlan If the number becomes big, better to choose continuous variable
Khadria HOW CAN THIS BE CONTINUOUS???? CAN IT BE 501.3 ????
nike yes continuous. on average, there are 501.3 visitors every month ...
mchu Statistics computed from discrete variables are continuous
StanleyMo very tricky..
ggupta Yes very tricky
wankoo Example, say 1258 visitors for 1 month. What's the average per month? 1258/31=40.58
Thus, continuous.
MiciMori I think the logic posted by the users are wrong. What do you think, if I throw a dice three times, and get 2,2,3 We all know, all these outcomes are discrete. Should I find the average (7/3=6.1) and say the outcome is thus continuous? Which is awfully wrong.
MiciMori I think the logic given by danlan is ok.
johntan1979 MiciMori... READ the question. "... wants to estimate the AVERAGE number of patients..."

Averages are ALWAYS continuous variables.
Seancfa1 Thank-you johntan1979
Yrazzaq88 I said continuous, because the Average Number of Patients will change every month. It won't be a consistent number.
schweitzdm If a discrete random variable has many possible outcomes, it can be treated as a continuous for conciseness. Ranges of values can be considered.
cschulz316 what mchu said
xp_acctant Clearly stated in the notes : Statistics from discrete are continuous .
CJHughes Average = Statistic = Continuous
wenhu very tricky question
jstid40 I get this is continuous but it doesn't appear there is consistency in CFAI is calling continuous. A persons height is continuous according to the explanation on one of the previous questions. This average is continuous. But yet a stock price (previous question) is discrete?
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