The following are a list of variables that will almost certainly vary across students in a large undergraduate introductory statistics course.
(a) Favorite beverage
(b) Year of birth
(c) Typing speed
(d) Handedness (e.g., left or right-handed)
(e) Age
(f) Occupation
(g) Self-report of Assertiveness
For questions 1a to 1d that follow choose the variable or variables that best represent the level of measurement.
a) Which variables would typically be measured on a nominal scale of measurement?
b) Which variable would likely be measured on an interval, but not a ratio scale?
c) Which two variables are most likely to be measured on a ratio scale?
d) As typically measured, which variable represents at least an ordinal scale of measurement, but probably not a true interval scale?

Scales of measurements are used in statistics to classify variables. The scale of measurement of a variable is important in statistics because it determines the kind of satisfaction analysis that should be used on it.

The four types of scale of measurement are;

1.) Norminal Scale: The normal scale is a categorical scale where variables are labeled with no specific order. No calculations can be done on this type of measurement because they do not have values and there is usually no order. Examples include;

Occupation, Favorite Beverage and Handedness.

2.) Ordinal Scale: This is used to show the order of variables. It is similar to the norminal scale with a slight difference. The ordinal scale has some form of ranking, that is some variables will be considered better or higher than others. Example include;

Self-report of assertiveness. Someone that claims to be highly assertive can be ranked above one that is just assertive.

3.) Interval Scale: This kind of measurements shows definite intervals between variables. It is like a scale where the order and the difference between variables are shown with no true zero value. Variables that fall under this category include; temperature and year of birth.

4.) Ratio Scale: This is the most accurate scale of measurement that encompasses the norminal, ordinal and interval scale of measurement. It has a zero value, shows order, interval and can still categorized. And example is the Age of students and typing speed.