Nominal scales are defined by which characteristic?

Nominal scales are defined by which characteristic?

• A. Two or more named categories in which categories show differences but not the degree of difference.
• B. Ordered categories with meaningful rank.
• C. Categories that have a natural zero point.
• D. Continuous numerical values.

Answer: (A)

Nominal scales classify data into named categories without any inherent order or magnitude. You can see that categories are different from one another, but there isn’t a meaningful way to say that one category is greater or lesser or to quantify any difference between categories. That matches the description of two or more named categories where the categories show differences but not the degree of difference. The other descriptions refer to different levels of measurement: an ordered set with meaningful ranks describes ordinal data; a natural zero point describes ratio data; and continuous numerical values describe interval or ratio data, not nominal categories.

Nominal scales classify data into named categories without any inherent order or magnitude. You can see that categories are different from one another, but there isn’t a meaningful way to say that one category is greater or lesser or to quantify any difference between categories. That matches the description of two or more named categories where the categories show differences but not the degree of difference.

The other descriptions refer to different levels of measurement: an ordered set with meaningful ranks describes ordinal data; a natural zero point describes ratio data; and continuous numerical values describe interval or ratio data, not nominal categories.