Question

Determine the level of measurement of the following data set: The ages (in years) of 6 students in a high school: {15, 15, 17, 17, 17, 18}

	A.	Nominal
	B.	Ordinal
	C.	Interval
	D.	Ratio

Answer 1

Age is RATIO SCALE.

The special feature about Ratio scale is that it has a zero point or origin and it deals with quantitative data. Age is continuous data thus to say i am 21.3 years old is not wrong. And age has a zero point or origin. Like if I say a father is 40 years old and his son 20 years. This means that the father has lived twice the years his son has.

And a friendly reminder is that the order of scales are..

Nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio. Where ratio is the highest. You can shift from ratio to ordinal. But NOt from a lower to upper scale. Age is ratio but you can describe it in ordinal like younger or older. Lastly, nominal and ordinal are qualitative and interval and ratio are quantitative.

This is all about measurement scales.

Thank you. Please vote if this has helped you.