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CA Foundation · Quantitative Aptitude · Statistical Description of Data

Temperature in degrees Celsius is a standard example of the interval scale. Which reason correctly explains why it is not a ratio scale?

Celsius temperature is interval, not ratio, because its zero point is arbitrary and does not mean absence of temperature. Differences are meaningful but ratios are not, so 40°C is not twice as hot as 20°C. A ratio scale needs a true zero.

  1. AIts zero is arbitrary, so 40°C is not twice as hot as 20°CCorrect
  2. BIts categories cannot be arranged in any order
  3. CDifferences between two temperatures have no meaning
  4. DIt can take only whole-number values

Explanation

On the Celsius scale 0°C is a conventional point and not an absence of temperature. Hence ratios such as 40°C being twice 20°C are meaningless, though differences are meaningful. This makes it interval. The option saying differences have no meaning is wrong, since interval scales allow differences.

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