continuous variable
a variable that may in theory have an infinite number of possible values. For example, time is a continuous variable because accurate instruments will enable it to be measured to any subdivision of a unit (e.g., 1.76 seconds). By contrast, number of children is not a continuous variable as it is not possible to have 1.76 children. In practice, a continuous variable may be restricted to an artificial range by instrumentation constraints, practical limitations, or other reasons. For example, a researcher assessing the influence of a new technique on student study time may only be able to observe a group of individuals for 1 hour per day, such that the range of time in the data he or she collects may span 0 minutes to 60 minutes, even though some people will in actuality have exceeded that upper figure. Compare discontinuous variable.