How not to get lost in the modern information world: discrete and continuous forms of data representation

“Who owns the information-owns the world” - says Caesar. And this statement is truer than ever in our time. Today information daily bombarded by an endless stream on any person. Sometimes it is so hard to understand and not get "lost" in the modern information world!

In fact, all forms of presenting information are a reflection of the surrounding world with the help of code symbols and signs. In short, first information about the world “coded”, some people, and then "decoded" by others. However, the difficulty lies precisely in the possibility of its distortion during the process. It is therefore important to understand what are the forms of presentation of information. It is easiest to divide them into continuous and discrete data representation.

Physical properties, geographical distance, square shapes and a variety of other options – continuous variable. This is due to the fact that they can take any values, and between the intermediate options there are no gaps, that allows us to speak about their “continuity”. In turn, discrete presentation of information describes the values that can take only certain values. Such values, in particular, include the letters of the alphabet, the number of electrons in an atom or sequence of colors in the rainbow.

Despite the differences, these two forms of communication are often used together. Take, for example, the statement: “the Area of this city - 864 sq km". “City” is a discrete information, because it actually limits our researches among the other geographic objects to the city. At the same time, "864" is a continuous information, in fact, this square can be any value i.e. can take any value (from zero to infinity).

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Presentation of information on discrete variables may be different. Often there are separate names for each value. This applies not only to mathematics and physics, but also everyday life. For example, we have the concept of “appliances”, and one of its meanings, "microwave", i.e. we were given one of the values of a discrete quantity of individual title! However, within each form there are also types of information, so let's focus on them in detail:

1. Photo – locking a single moment from the life of the world, which is perceived as a moment from our memory, i.e., fully consistent with the human perception of the world.
2. Map or drawing – a fairly accurate representation of the terrain, which allows a person to quickly understand all the complexities of objects of surrounding reality.
3. Symbols and icons-universal method of information exchange between people, which is understandable to representatives of different cultures and of different ages.
4. And finally, writing and speaking – is another way of sharing knowledge about the natural world among people of a certain socio-cultural groups.

Now that you know what are the forms of presentation of information, you will be able to Express their thoughts, and others will be easier for you to understand!