Question

Engineers are testing a new formulation for the material used to make insulators for Yeti tumblers (keep your hot drinks hot and your cold drinks cold). As part of the process to make insulators they need to heat the material to form it in the correct shape. They will try heating the insulators at four different temperatures,followed by either slow or rapid cooling. They want to try every combination of the heating and cooling options to see which produces insulators least likely to break. How likely the insulator is to break is rated on a scale of 1 to 10.

What are the experimental units?
What are the factors?
What are the levels?
How many treatments are there?
What is the response variable?

Answer 1

The experimental units are the individual Yeti tumblers. Factors include the heating temperature and cooling rates, with several levels for each, resulting in 8 different treatments. The response variable is the fragility rating of the tumblers.

Step-by-step explanation:

In an experiment where engineers are testing new formulations for insulator materials in Yeti tumblers, the following experiment design elements are identified:

• Experimental units: These are the individual instances of insulator materials formed into Yeti tumblers and subjected to different temperature and cooling treatments.
• Factors: These are variables that the engineers are manipulating in the experiment, which are the temperature at which the insulators are heated, and the rate of cooling (slow or rapid).
• Levels: Levels are the specific values that the factors can take. If there are four different temperatures tested and two cooling rates, this would result in multiple levels for each factor.
• Treatments: A treatment is a specific combination of factors (and their levels) applied to the experimental units. In this case, with four temperatures and two cooling rates, there are 4 x 2 = 8 treatments.
• Response variable: This is what is being measured to determine the effect of the treatments, which, in this case, is how likely the insulator is to break, rated on a scale of 1 to 10.