To monitor campus security,the campus security office is taking a survey of the number of students in a parking lot each 30 minutes of a 24-hour period with the goal of determining when patrols of the lot would serve the most students.If X is the number of students in the lot each period of time,then X is an example of
A) a categorical random variable.
B) a discrete random variable.
C) a continuous random variable.
D) a statistic.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

X represents the number of students in the parking lot, which is a countable and finite value, making it a discrete random variable. A categorical random variable would represent a characteristic or category of the students (e.g. gender or major). X is also not a continuous variable as it cannot take on any value in a continuous range. Additionally, X is not a statistic as it represents a random variable, not a numerical summary of a sample or population.

To Monitor Campus Security,the Campus Security Office Is Taking a Survey