Classify the following as an example of nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio level of measurement, and state why it representa this level: heights of 40 high school students.
This should help.
http://drdavespsychologypage.intuitwebsites.com/Two___Two_____four.pdf
To classify the given example, we need to understand the different levels of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.
1. Nominal level: This level of measurement is the most basic and involves categorizing data into distinct groups without any quantitative value or ordering. Examples include gender, colors, or names.
2. Ordinal level: In this level, data can be categorized and ranked into specific order but lacks specific intervals or constant differences between each value. Examples include rankings in a competition or survey responses, where the order is important but the difference between ranks may not be constant.
3. Interval level: The interval level of measurement has values that are ranked and have equal intervals between them, but there is no true zero point. Temperature on the Celsius or Fahrenheit scale is a common example. Zero represents a starting point, but it is not an absolute absence of temperature.
4. Ratio level: This is the highest level of measurement. It possesses all the properties of the interval level, with the inclusion of an absolute zero point. Examples of ratio level variables include height, weight, or time. Zero in these cases signifies the complete absence of the measured attribute.
In the given example, the heights of 40 high school students represent the ratio level of measurement. This is because heights can be measured quantitatively, ranked in order, have equal intervals between values, and possess an absolute zero point (0cm height represents no height). Therefore, the heights of the high school students fit the criteria for ratio level measurement.