Question

A pet food company conducted an experiment to compare five different cat foods. A sample of 30 cats from the population at a local animal shelter was selected. Each cat was then assigned one of the five products. Each cat's preference was recorded. What type of experimental design is this?

Answer 1

The pet food company's experiment featuring 30 cats and five different cat foods represents a completely randomized design, where each cat has an equal chance of being assigned to any treatment.

Step-by-step explanation:

The experimental design described in the pet food company scenario is a completely randomized design. In this type of design, all the experimental units (which, in this case, are the cats) have an equal chance of receiving any of the treatments (which are the five different cat foods). This is similar to the experiment where 100 college students were randomly assigned to use different sizes of tableware, with the amount of food consumed being the response variable. The company's experiment also mirrors the scenario where a health club surveys every tenth customer, although the latter is a systematic sampling method, not an experiment.