I'm using Orange Canvas and I generated a scatter plot. I have the possibility to jitter continuous variables but I really don't know why would I do that.
What's the idea behind jittering?
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1$\begingroup$ To deal with overprinting and hence give a less misleading visual impression. If you only have a few points you do not need to do it. $\endgroup$– mdeweyDec 23, 2016 at 12:36
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$\begingroup$ For a concrete example of jittering helping to see the patterns in data, see my answer here: How to extract information from a scatterplot matrix when you have large N, discrete data, & many variables? $\endgroup$– gung - Reinstate MonicaDec 23, 2016 at 17:29
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1 Answer
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This post explains it well.
Often when you have a lot of overlapping points it can be hard to get a sense for their density. Two thousand points at (1, 1) appear the same as one point at (1, 1). Adding some jitter turns overlapping points into a smear and makes the density of points obvious.
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1$\begingroup$ Isn't it about discrete data, whereas the question explicitly asks about continuous data? $\endgroup$– amoebaDec 25, 2016 at 12:42
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2$\begingroup$ Adding to what @amoeba said this answer is correct when you add that that the continuous data we deal with is rounded due to measurement precision and so problems like described above occur. $\endgroup$– Tim ♦Dec 25, 2016 at 23:21