Netyjnd

How can I get through very long and very dry, but also very useful technical documents when learning a new tool?

Anatomically Correct Strange Women In Ponds Distributing Swords

What happens if you roll doubles 3 times then land on "Go to jail?"

when is out of tune ok?

How to safely derail a train during transit?

Is `x >> pure y` equivalent to `liftM (const y) x`

Failed to fetch jessie backports repository

Energy of the particles in the particle accelerator

What is the opposite of 'gravitas'?

What is the intuitive meaning of having a linear relationship between the logs of two variables?

Is oxalic acid dihydrate considered a primary acid standard in analytical chemistry?

Avoiding estate tax by giving multiple gifts

Is there a korbon needed for conversion?

Crossing the line between justified force and brutality

Increase performance creating Mandelbrot set in python

Large drywall patch supports

Was Spock the First Vulcan in Starfleet?

Implement the Thanos sorting algorithm

How do we know the LHC results are robust?

What is the difference between "behavior" and "behaviour"?

How does buying out courses with grant money work?

Sequence of Tenses: Translating the subjunctive

A particular customize with green line and letters for subfloat

Pole-zeros of a real-valued causal FIR system

Can the discrete variable be a negative number?

Calculating $R^2$ when one variable can only take integer valuesSemi-discrete probability distributionCharacterizing uncertainty in empirical PMF of unknown discrete random distributionAnomaly Detection with Dummy Features (and other Discrete/Categorical Features)Real life examples of distributions with negative skewnessDiscrete uniform random variable(?) taking all rational values in a closed intervalCorrelation or clustering of continuous score and discrete variable statesIs my random variable discrete or continuous?Correlation and significance testing between continuous and discrete dataMCMC: How to choose an efficient proposal distribution with continuous and discrete variables

2

$begingroup$

I read in a book "An Introduction to Statistical Concepts [3 ed.] p.8):

A numerical variable is a quantitative variable. Numerical variables can further be classified as either discrete or continuous. A discrete variable is defined as a variable that can only take on certain values. For example, the number of children in a family can only take on certain values. Many values are not possible, such as negative values (e.g., the Joneses cannot have −2 children) or decimal values (e.g., the Smiths cannot have 2.2 children). In contrast, a continuous variable is defined as a variable that can take on any value within a certain range given a precise enough measurement instrument.

Question: Does this mean that a discrete variable cannot be a negative number? If a discrete variable cannot be a negative number then please explain why?

distributions discrete-data

share|cite|improve this question

edited 2 hours ago

Sycorax

42.1k12109207

asked 3 hours ago

vasili111vasili111

2241312

$endgroup$

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  consider "$X_t$" is "number of goals scored in match $t$" and let $Y_t=X_t-X_t-1$. (i.e. the change in goals scored from the previous game). $Y_t$ is discrete but can clearly be negative.
  $endgroup$
  – Glen_b♦
  2 hours ago
  
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

2

$begingroup$

I read in a book "An Introduction to Statistical Concepts [3 ed.] p.8):

A numerical variable is a quantitative variable. Numerical variables can further be classified as either discrete or continuous. A discrete variable is defined as a variable that can only take on certain values. For example, the number of children in a family can only take on certain values. Many values are not possible, such as negative values (e.g., the Joneses cannot have −2 children) or decimal values (e.g., the Smiths cannot have 2.2 children). In contrast, a continuous variable is defined as a variable that can take on any value within a certain range given a precise enough measurement instrument.

Question: Does this mean that a discrete variable cannot be a negative number? If a discrete variable cannot be a negative number then please explain why?

distributions discrete-data

share|cite|improve this question

edited 2 hours ago

Sycorax

42.1k12109207

asked 3 hours ago

vasili111vasili111

2241312

$endgroup$

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  consider "$X_t$" is "number of goals scored in match $t$" and let $Y_t=X_t-X_t-1$. (i.e. the change in goals scored from the previous game). $Y_t$ is discrete but can clearly be negative.
  $endgroup$
  – Glen_b♦
  2 hours ago
  
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

$begingroup$

I read in a book "An Introduction to Statistical Concepts [3 ed.] p.8):

A numerical variable is a quantitative variable. Numerical variables can further be classified as either discrete or continuous. A discrete variable is defined as a variable that can only take on certain values. For example, the number of children in a family can only take on certain values. Many values are not possible, such as negative values (e.g., the Joneses cannot have −2 children) or decimal values (e.g., the Smiths cannot have 2.2 children). In contrast, a continuous variable is defined as a variable that can take on any value within a certain range given a precise enough measurement instrument.

Question: Does this mean that a discrete variable cannot be a negative number? If a discrete variable cannot be a negative number then please explain why?

distributions discrete-data

share|cite|improve this question

edited 2 hours ago

Sycorax

42.1k12109207

asked 3 hours ago

vasili111vasili111

2241312

$endgroup$

share|cite|improve this question

edited 2 hours ago

Sycorax

42.1k12109207

asked 3 hours ago

vasili111vasili111

2241312

share|cite|improve this question

edited 2 hours ago

Sycorax

42.1k12109207

asked 3 hours ago

vasili111vasili111

2241312

edited 2 hours ago

Sycorax

42.1k12109207

edited 2 hours ago

Sycorax

42.1k12109207

asked 3 hours ago

vasili111vasili111

2241312

asked 3 hours ago

vasili111vasili111

2241312

1 Answer
1

active

oldest

votes

4

$begingroup$

Your intuition is correct -- a discrete variable can take on negative values.

The example is just an example: a person can't have $-2$ children, but they can have $-2$ dollars (for example, if you write a bad check, or are in debt).

Discrete variables with negative values exist all over the place. Two prominent examples:

• Rademacher distribution


• Skellam distribution

share|cite|improve this answer

answered 2 hours ago

SycoraxSycorax

42.1k12109207

$endgroup$

add a comment | 

Your Answer

StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function ()
return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function ()
StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix)
StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["$", "$"], ["\\(","\\)"]]);
);
);
, "mathjax-editing");

StackExchange.ready(function()
var channelOptions =
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "65"
;
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
createEditor();
);

else
createEditor();

);

function createEditor()
StackExchange.prepareEditor(
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader:
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
,
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
);



);

draft saved

draft discarded

Sign up or log in

StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);

Sign up using Google

Sign up using Facebook

Sign up using Email and Password

Post as a guest

Name

Email

Required, but never shown

StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fstats.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f399832%2fcan-the-discrete-variable-be-a-negative-number%23new-answer', 'question_page');

);

Post as a guest

Name

Email

Required, but never shown

4

$begingroup$

Your intuition is correct -- a discrete variable can take on negative values.

The example is just an example: a person can't have $-2$ children, but they can have $-2$ dollars (for example, if you write a bad check, or are in debt).

Discrete variables with negative values exist all over the place. Two prominent examples:

• Rademacher distribution


• Skellam distribution

share|cite|improve this answer

answered 2 hours ago

SycoraxSycorax

42.1k12109207

$endgroup$

add a comment | 

4

$begingroup$

Your intuition is correct -- a discrete variable can take on negative values.

The example is just an example: a person can't have $-2$ children, but they can have $-2$ dollars (for example, if you write a bad check, or are in debt).

Discrete variables with negative values exist all over the place. Two prominent examples:

• Rademacher distribution


• Skellam distribution

share|cite|improve this answer

answered 2 hours ago

SycoraxSycorax

42.1k12109207

$endgroup$

add a comment | 

$begingroup$

Your intuition is correct -- a discrete variable can take on negative values.

The example is just an example: a person can't have $-2$ children, but they can have $-2$ dollars (for example, if you write a bad check, or are in debt).

Discrete variables with negative values exist all over the place. Two prominent examples:

• Rademacher distribution


• Skellam distribution

share|cite|improve this answer

answered 2 hours ago

SycoraxSycorax

42.1k12109207

$endgroup$

share|cite|improve this answer

answered 2 hours ago

SycoraxSycorax

42.1k12109207

answered 2 hours ago

SycoraxSycorax

42.1k12109207

answered 2 hours ago

SycoraxSycorax

42.1k12109207