Talstørrelser

Talstørrelser, or numerical quantities, are quantities that can be expressed as numbers. They quantify properties of objects and systems in science, engineering, and statistics. Each talstørrelse has a numeric value and a unit, such as meters, kilograms, or seconds, defining its scale and dimension.

Talstørrelser can be classified as discrete or continuous. Discrete talstørrelser take only separate values, typically integers, such as the number of students in a room or the count of occurrences. Continuous talstørrelser can take any value within a range, such as length, mass, or temperature, and are often measured with instrument accuracy.

Because talstørrelser are measured or counted, measurement uncertainty and precision are important. The reported value includes a significant figure, and units may be converted when comparing data. In data analysis, talstørrelser support numerical methods: calculating means, medians, variances, and fitting distributions.

In statistics and data science, talstørrelser are examples of quantitative data, as opposed to qualitative (categorical) data. They can appear on different measurement scales, such as interval and ratio scales, where meaningful arithmetic operations apply (ratio scales allow true zero).

In computation, talstørrelser are stored as numbers, typically integers or floating-point values, and are subject to rounding errors and overflow.