Question

An experiment that was carried out to study how flow rate through a solenoid valve in an automobile's pollution-control system depended on three factors: armature lengths, spring load, and bobbin depth. Four different levels (low, moderate, high, and extreme) of each factor were chosen, and a single observation on flow was made for each combination of levels.

Requried:
a. The resulting data set consisted of how many observations?
b. Is this an enumerative or analytic study? Explain your reasoning.

Answer 1

a. There are 12 observations from the resulting data set.

b. This is an analytic study. It compares the flow rates through a solenoid valve based on three factors at four different levels.

Explanation:

Observations of the dependence of flow rate

Factors Armature Spring Bobbin

Lengths Load Depth

Levels

Low 1 1 1

Moderate 1 1 1

High 1 1 1

Extreme 1 1 1

Total observations 4 4 4

Number of observations = 12

b) Whereas enumerative studies are statistical studies carried out to draw a conclusion on a process or a condition, analytic studies are statistical studies that compare two or more groups or sets of data to improve future performance. The focus of an analytic study is on the process rather than the condition. Enumerative studies tend to explain, evaluate, and describe the condition of the dataset.