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Level of measurement or scale of measure is a classification that describes the nature of information within the values assigned to variables. [1] Psychologist Stanley Smith Stevens developed the best-known classification with four levels, or scales, of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.
For example, count data requires a different distribution (e.g. a Poisson distribution or binomial distribution) than non-negative real-valued data require, but both fall under the same level of measurement (a ratio scale). Various attempts have been made to produce a taxonomy of levels of measurement.
Some data are measured at the interval level. Numbers indicate the magnitude of difference between items, but there is no absolute zero point. Examples are attitude scales and opinion scales. Some data are measured at the ratio level. Numbers indicate magnitude of difference and there is a fixed zero point. Ratios can be calculated.
Though each chart uses the same data, the ratio scale chart presents a visual that accurately presents the data. In the above examples, the interval chart shows a magnified subsection of the ratio chart. A common example of this type of interval magnification is used in charting stocks. A chart may indicate severe price swings because the chart ...
For example, most temperature scales (e.g., Celsius, Fahrenheit etc.) are interval scales with arbitrary zeros, so the computed coefficient of variation would be different depending on the scale used. On the other hand, Kelvin temperature has a meaningful zero, the complete absence of thermal energy, and thus is a ratio scale. In plain language ...
[1]: 2 These data exist on an ordinal scale, one of four levels of measurement described by S. S. Stevens in 1946. The ordinal scale is distinguished from the nominal scale by having a ranking. [2] It also differs from the interval scale and ratio scale by not having category widths that represent equal increments of the underlying attribute. [3]
If the dependent variable is continuous—either interval level or ratio level, such as a temperature scale or an income scale—then simple regression can be used. If both variables are time series , a particular type of causality known as Granger causality can be tested for, and vector autoregression can be performed to examine the ...
Variance (the square of the standard deviation) – location-invariant but not linear in scale. Variance-to-mean ratio – mostly used for count data when the term coefficient of dispersion is used and when this ratio is dimensionless, as count data are themselves dimensionless, not otherwise. Some measures of dispersion have specialized purposes.