On the left, bottles on a conveyor belt, labelled ‘discrete’. On the right, a man with a thermometer in his mouth, labelled ‘continuous’.

When you click on the bottles, the conveyor belt starts to move. When a bottle reaches the middle of the belt it is filled with orange fizzy pop. Bottles are discrete data and you can count them.

When you click on the man, the mercury travels up the thermometer, the man’s face turns red and he begins to sweat. Temperature is continuous data and you can measure it with a thermometer.