Continuous and Discontinuous Variation

What is variation? Differences between living things of the same species is called variation. Your classmates may have different – Eye colour – Hair colour. – Some will be boys and some will be girls. – Some will be tall – Some will be shorter.

Species Individuals of the same species can reproduce Two individuals belonging to different species cannot normally reproduce together. If they do, their offspring is usually infertile and unable to reproduce.

. For example, when a lion and a tiger reproduce….

For example animals called ligers are produced when a male lion and a female tiger reproduce. But a liger cannot have offspring. This means that lions and tigers are different species.

Continuous variation Continuous variation is something that has a range of values e.g. height of a population. Height ranges from that of the shortest person in the world to that of the tallest person. Any height is possible between these values. Other examples are: weight foot length.

If you record the heights of a group of people and draw a graph of your results, it usually looks something like this:

Discontinuous variation A characteristic which has only a limited number of possible values. Here are some examples: gender (male or female) blood group (A, B, AB or O) eye colour.

Your task! Write own your height on a post it note and place this on the white board to produce a graph (as previously shown) Write down your eye colour on a second post it and place this into the correct category on a second graph on the white board Draw your graphs in your books and explain if they show continuous or discontinuous data