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In mathematics and statistics, a quantitative variable may be continuous or discrete if it is typically obtained by measuring or counting, respectively. [1] If it can take on two particular real values such that it can also take on all real values between them (including values that are arbitrarily or infinitesimally close together), the variable is continuous in that interval. [2]
The utility of the measure-theoretic treatment of probability is that it unifies the discrete and the continuous cases, and makes the difference a question of which measure is used. Furthermore, it covers distributions that are neither discrete nor continuous nor mixtures of the two.
A discrete probability distribution is applicable to the scenarios where the set of possible outcomes is discrete (e.g. a coin toss, a roll of a die) and the probabilities are encoded by a discrete list of the probabilities of the outcomes; in this case the discrete probability distribution is known as probability mass function.
A mixed random variable is a random variable whose cumulative distribution function is neither discrete nor everywhere-continuous. [10] It can be realized as a mixture of a discrete random variable and a continuous random variable; in which case the CDF will be the weighted average of the CDFs of the component variables. [10]
The Dirac delta function, although not strictly a probability distribution, is a limiting form of many continuous probability functions. It represents a discrete probability distribution concentrated at 0 — a degenerate distribution — it is a Distribution (mathematics) in the generalized function sense; but the notation treats it as if it ...
Dichotomization is the special case of discretization in which the number of discrete classes is 2, which can approximate a continuous variable as a binary variable (creating a dichotomy for modeling purposes, as in binary classification). Discretization is also related to discrete mathematics, and is an important component of granular computing.
It is possible to represent certain discrete random variables as well as random variables involving both a continuous and a discrete part with a generalized probability density function using the Dirac delta function. (This is not possible with a probability density function in the sense defined above, it may be done with a distribution.)
Discrete mathematics is the study of mathematical structures that can be considered "discrete" (in a way analogous to discrete variables, having a bijection with the set of natural numbers) rather than "continuous" (analogously to continuous functions).