Measurement

Measurement is an allocate a numeric value or symbol to a physical attribute.

Behind each measurement there is a physical attribute which must be identified.

Measure Physical Attribute

Blood pressure Chance of heart attack
Waiting time in queue Irritation level
Marks in exam Knowledge of subject
Typing speed Ability to complete work in time

Exercise:
Identify the physical attributes for the following:
Time (from hostel to class)
Body temperature
Temperature of environment

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 Scale of Measurement
Nominal Scale: The observations can take values from a predetermined
small set (usually 10) where the values do not have a natural
ordering.
Examples:
Religion, Country of origin, Marital status, Sex etc.

Ordinal Scale: The observations can take values from a predetermined

small set where the values do have an order.
Examples:
Customer satisfaction scores (in 1-5 scale)
Social class (upper, middle, lower)
Level of education (Secondary, higher secondary, graduate, post
graduate, )

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 Scale of Measurement
Interval Scale: The variables do have numerical distances between any
two levels of the scale but the concept of zero is arbitrary (e.g.,
temperature measured in Centigrade, Fahrenheit and Kelvin).

Ratio Scale: Same as interval scale with the difference that the location of
zero is non-arbitrary (e.g., blood pressure level, age, weight, height etc.)

Numerical operations like computing averages is valid,

if the measurements are made in interval or ratio scale.

Note:
While measurement plans are made, attempts should be made to
consider interval or ratio scale data as much as possible.

3
 Variability in Measurement
A measurement system has two types of variation.
They are repeatability and reproducibility.
Repeatability: The variation of measurement that will be
observed if the same physical attribute is measured
repeatedly under similar conditions. Usually this represents
the amount of variation observed when measurement is
undertaken by one person.

Reproducibility: The variation of measurement that is

observed when the same physical attribute is measured
repeatedly under different circumstances. Usually this
represents the amount of variation observed when
measurement is undertaken by more than one person (or
different systems).
Let us have a small exercise