Measurement Scale Worksheet

Below is a list of variables (and their possible values).

• Which of these variables are quantitative and which are qualitative?
• Out of the four possible scales of data (Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, Ratio), which scale does each of them belong to?

Please explain your answer.

1. The dollar amount on an accounts receivable invoice. _________________________
2. The grade (A B CD E F) you may get from this class. _________________________
3. The stock exchange on which a company's stock is traded. _________________________
4. The total debt of the Italian government in 2010. _________________________
5. The advertising medium (radio, television, or newspaper) through which the consumer learns about a product. _________________________
6. The temperature outside, in degrees Fahrenheit. _________________________
7. The rating of a movie on a scale of: 5-very good, 4-good, 3-average, 2-bad, 1-very bad. _________________________
8. The net profit for a company in 2009 in U.S. dollars. _________________________
9. A person's marital status (Single, Married, Divorced, Widowed). _________________________
10. The education level of a person (Elementary School, Middle School, High School, College/University, Graduate School). _________________________
11. The date of birth of a student (e.g., Jan 17, 1994). _________________________
12. A factory rates its worker with the following scale: skilled, semi-skilled, unskilled. _________________________
13. The radioactivity in radioactive material is commonly measured by the amount of intrinsic radiation activity in becquerels (one Bq of radioactive material is that amount which has an average of one nuclear disintegration per second). _________________________
14. The temperature outside, in degrees Celsius. _________________________
15. A Likert scale, on which you rate this class from 1 (very poor) to 5 (excellent). _________________________

Choose the correct answer in the following.

1. An investigator studies how memory changes with age. Age is a (categorical/continuous) variable.

1. A researcher studies the factors that determine how many children couples decide to have. The variable, number of children, is a (categorical/continuous) variable.

1. The amount of pollutants in water or air (commonly measured as parts per million (ppm)) is a (categorical/continuous) variable.

1. The average dose received by a person from naturally occurring background nuclear radiation as measured by mSv/yr(milli-Sievert/year) is a (categorical/continuous) variable.

1. A questionnaire asks individuals to report birthday, gender, eye color, weight, and height. For each of the five variables, classify the variable as either categorical or continuous.

Then identify the scale of measurement that would be used.

1. Two researchers are evaluating taste preferences among three leading brands of soft drink. After the subjects taste each brand, the first researcher asks each subject to identify the most preferred, the second most preferred, and the least preferred drink.

The second researcher asks each subject to rate each of the drinks on a 10-point scale, where a rating of 1 indicates "terrible taste" through 10 indicating "excellent taste."

Identify the variables both researchers and the scale used in each variable.