Which term describes data that can be measured on a continuous scale, such as height or weight?

The term that describes data that can be measured on a continuous scale, such as height or weight, is indeed continuous data. This type of data can take any value within a given range and can include fractions and decimals, allowing for detailed measurements. For example, someone can weigh 150.5 pounds or be 5.8 feet tall, indicating that continuous data is not restricted to whole numbers.

In contrast, nominal data refers to categories without any intrinsic ordering, such as types of fruit or colors, which cannot be logically arranged in a sequence. Ordinal data involves categories that have a specific order but do not have consistent intervals between the categories, such as rankings in a race. Discrete data consists of countable values, like the number of children in a family, which can only be whole numbers. Each of these types of data serves a different purpose in data collection and analysis, but continuous data is specifically characterized by its range of possible measurements on a scale.