Identify the scale of measurement for the following: military title -- Lieutenant, Captain, Major.
false
false
nominal
Nominal measurement consists of assigning items to groups or categories. No quantitative information is conveyed and no ordering of the items is implied. Military titles are not nominal because there is an inherent ordering in the titles.
true
ordinal
false
interval
Interval measurement scales are those where one unit on the scale represents the same magnitude on the trait or characteristic being measured across the whole range of the scale. Military titles are not interval because although there is an inherent ordering, the differences between adjacent ranks are not necessarily equal.
false
ratio
Military rankings are not a ratio scale. Ratio scales are like interval scales except they have true zero points.
The scale is ordinal. There is an inherent ordering in that a Major is higher than a Captain, which is higher than a Lieutenant.
Identify the scale of measurement for the following categorization of clothing: hat, shirt, shoes, pants
false
true
nominal
false
ordinal
Measurements with ordinal scales are ordered in the sense that higher numbers represent higher values. There is no inherent order in the categorization of clothing, so this would not be ordinal.
false
interval
Interval measurement scales are those where one unit on the scale represents the same magnitude on the trait or characteristic being measured across the whole range of the scale. Categories of clothing have no inherent order, thus they cannot be interval.
false
ratio
Ratio scales, like interval and ordinal scales, have an inherent order with the exception that ratio scales have a true zero point as well. Categories of clothing have no inherent order, thus they cannot be ratio.
Since clothes are categorized and have no inherent order, the scale is nominal.
Identify the scale of measurement for the following: heat measured in degrees centigrade.
false
false
nominal
Nominal measurement consists of assigning items to groups or categories. No quantitative information is conveyed and no ordering of the items is implied. Degrees centigrade are not nominal because there is an inherent ordering in the number of degrees.
false
ordinal
Measurements with ordinal scales are ordered in the sense that higher numbers represent higher values. However, ordinal scales do not have equal intervals between each unit of measure. Degrees centigrade is not ordinal because the difference between 20 degrees and 25 degrees represents the same temperature increase as 30 degrees to 35 degrees.
true
interval
false
ratio
It is not ratio because 0 degrees does not refer to an absence of temperature.
The scale is interval because there are equal intervals between temperatures but no true zero point.
A score on a 5-point quiz measuring knowledge of algebra is an example of a(n)
true
false
nominal scale.
It is not nominal because there is an inherent ordering in that a score of 4 is higher than a score of 3.
true
ordinal scale.
false
interval scale.
It is not an interval scale because the intervals between scores are not necessarily the same. There is no guarantee that the difference between, say, a 2 and a 3 represents the same difference in knowledge as the difference between a 4 and a 5.
false
ratio scale.
It is not a ratio scale because there is no true zero point. A zero score does not necessarily represent zero knowledge.
It is ordinal because higher scores are better than lower scores. However, there is no guarantee that the difference between, say, a 2 and a 3 represents the same difference in knowledge as the difference between a 4 and a 5.
City of birth is an example of a(n)
true
true
nominal scale.
false
ordinal scale.
Measurements with ordinal scales are ordered in the sense that values represent higher values than others. There is no inherent order in the city that someone was born in, so this would not be an ordinal scale.
false
interval scale.
Interval measurement scales are those where one unit on the scale represents the same magnitude on the trait or characteristic being measured across the whole range of the scale. The city that someone was born in has no inherent order, thus cannot be an interval scale.
false
ratio scale.
There is no inherent ordering which is necessary for ordinal, interval, and ratio scales.
The city that someone was born in has no inherent order, thus can only be a nominal scale.
There is debate about the value of computing means for
true
true
ordinal data.
false
interval data
There is agreement that it is OK to compute means of interval data.
false
nominal data.
There is agreement that it is not OK to compute means of nominal data.
false
ratio data.
There is agreement that it is OK to compute means of ratio data.
Most statisticians agree that it is valid to compute means of ordinal data, although some vehemently disagree.