The continuum is a range or series in which no part is completely distinct from the next but with distinctly defined extremes. The concept can be applied to many things, including the way musical styles develop over time and the length of human life stages. It is also a key to understanding the differences between caste and class systems of social stratification, as well as the ease with which people move between achieved and ascribed statuses.
It is also the basis for many of the ideas behind modern quantum physics, which describes everything in the universe as existing on an unbroken continuum of possible states. The notion of the continuum is often confused with the idea of a spectrum, but a spectrum shows discrete points and a continuum does not.
Some people argue that the notion of the continuum can be applied to the quality of a product, indicating that any product falls on an unseen but real continuum of good and bad. But the problem with this view is that it tends to create a false dichotomy between absolute good and absolute bad. The truth is that most products fall somewhere on the continuum, and the best ones tend to be in the middle.
The word continuum is associated with a number of related words, phrases and idioms. Browse the word association links below to find out more about these meanings. the continuum