GEM 804 - Advance Engineering Statistic: Types of Variable and Level of Measurement

GEM 804 – Advance Engineering Statistic
Types of Variable and Level of Measurement

Group 2
Kei Cimatu
Jimi Tristan G. Del Valle
Mark Obciana
Webster L. Manuel
Guillian Miles Eugenio
Types of Variables
• Categorical variable: variables than can be put into categories. For example, the category
“Toothpaste Brands” might contain the variables Colgate and Aquafresh.
• Confounding variable: extra variables that have a hidden effect on your experimental results.
• Continuous variable: a variable with infinite number of values, like “time” or “weight”.
• Control variable: a factor in an experiment which must be held constant. For example, in an
experiment to determine whether light makes plants grow faster, you would have to control for
soil quality and water.
Types of Variables
• Dependent variable: the outcome of an experiment. As you change the independent variable, you
watch what happens to the dependent variable.
• Discrete variable: a variable that can only take on a certain number of values. For example,
“number of cars in a parking lot” is discrete because a car park can only hold so many cars.
• Independent variable: a variable that is not affected by anything that you, the researcher, does.
Usually plotted on the x-axis.
• A measurement variable has a number associated with it. It’s an “amount” of something, or
a”number” of something.
Types of Variables
• Nominal variable: another name for categorical variable.

• Ordinal variable: similar to a categorical variable, but there is a clear order. For example, income
levels of low, middle, and high could be considered ordinal.
• Qualitative variable: a broad category for any variable that can’t be counted (i.e. has no
numerical value). Nominal and ordinal variables fall under this umbrella term.
• Quantitative variable: A broad category that includes any variable that can be counted, or has a
numerical value associated with it. Examples of variables that fall into this category include
discrete variables and ratio variables.
Types of Variables
• Random variables are associated with random processes and give numbers to outcomes of
random events.
• A ranked variable is an ordinal variable; a variable where every data point can be put in order
(1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.).
• Ratio variables: similar to interval variables, but has a meaningful zero.
Levels of Measurement
• The first level of measurement is Nominal level of measurement. In this level of measurement,

the numbers in the variable are used only to classify the data. In this level of measurement,
words, letters, and alpha-numeric symbols can be used. Suppose there are data about people
belonging to three different gender categories. In this case, the person belonging to the female
gender could be classified as F, the person belonging to the male gender could be classified as M,
and transgendered classified as T. This type of assigning classification is nominal level of
measurement.
• The second level of measurement is the Ordinal level of measurement. This level of

measurement depicts some ordered relationship among the variable’s observations. Suppose a
student scores the highest grade of 100 in the class. In this case, he would be assigned the first
rank. Then, another classmate scores the second highest grade of an 92; she would be assigned
the second rank. A third student scores a 81 and he would be assigned the third rank, and so on.
The ordinal level of measurement indicates an ordering of the measurements.
• The third level of measurement is the Interval level of measurement.
• The interval level of measurement not only classifies and orders the measurements, but it also
specifies that the distances between each interval on the scale are equivalent along the scale from
low interval to high interval.
EXAMPLE 1:
EXAMPLE 2:
EXAMPLE 2:
SUMMARY INTERVAL LEVEL
OF MEASUREMENT:
• Quantitative Data
• Data can be ordered
• Difference between data entries is meaningful
• Zero does not imply none.
• The fourth level of measurement is the Ratio level of measurement. In this level of
measurement, the observations, in addition to having equal intervals, can have a value of zero as
well. The zero in the scale makes this type of measurement unlike the other types of
measurement, although the properties are similar to that of the interval level of measurement. In
the ratio level of measurement, the divisions between the points on the scale have an equivalent
distance between them.

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GEM 804 – Advance Engineering Statistic

Types of Variable and Level of Measurement

• Nominal variable: another name for categorical variable.

• The first level of measurement is Nominal level of measurement. In this level of measurement,

• The second level of measurement is the Ordinal level of measurement. This level of

• The third level of measurement is the Interval level of measurement.

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