Final answer:
In an art competition with a winner, second place, and a people's choice, the type of measurement scale being used is an ordinal scale. This scale can rank order but does not specify the magnitude of difference between ranks, as determined by judges.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the context of an art competition, where there is one winner, one second place, and a "people's choice" determined by the public, the type of measurement scale being used is an ordinal scale. The term 'losers' refers to all other participants who did not win or place. An ordinal scale allows for rank ordering of items from highest to lowest, but does not specify the magnitude of difference between the ranks. In this case, while the winner can be distinguished from the second place, and the second place from the people's choice, we cannot quantify the exact differences in terms of artistic quality or any other metric as implied by the judges.
Ordinal scales are used commonly when rankings are necessary, such as in survey responses like excellent, good, satisfactory, etc., where they order experiences or responses without quantifying the exact differences between them.