Quantitative

A quantitative property can be measured in a way that doesn't depend on the observer or the mechanism used to take the measure, and this measure can be expressed with a number and units of measure; properties which aren't quantitative are called qualitative. Examples of quantitative properties include:

Use in debate

SATs are often accused of attempting to put a quantitative measure (the SAT score) to something that is fundamentally qualitative (education and human intelligence).

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Particularly in political debate, it can be an effective tactic to dismiss an observation as qualitative rather than quantitative; this is seen as undermining the legitimacy of that observation. This may be related to the common perception of quantitative data as more objective than qualitative data.

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