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Absolute vs. Relative Quantities

Absolute vs. Relative Quantities. Week 3 LSP 120 Joanna Deszcz. Measuring Numerical Data. 2 Methods Particularly if goal is to measure the least and greatest occurrence of some quantifiable variable Absolute Quantities Relative Quantities. Absolute Quantities.

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Absolute vs. Relative Quantities

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  1. Absolute vs. Relative Quantities Week 3 LSP 120 Joanna Deszcz

  2. Measuring Numerical Data • 2 Methods • Particularly if goal is to measure the least and greatest occurrence of some quantifiable variable • Absolute Quantities • Relative Quantities

  3. Absolute Quantities • Measure of the absolute occurrence of the variable • A “sheer” number • Tells how many or how much • Examples • Number of students enrolled at DePaul • Number of people in this class • Number of babies born this year

  4. Relative Quantity • An absolute quantity divided by some other quantity • Calculated value • Tells percent, rate, fraction or ratio • Examples: • Ticket sales per person • Percentage of population infected with HIV by country • Percent increase in population by state

  5. Types of Relative Quantities • Fraction or Percent • Used when comparing part to total of the same type of variable • Percent of people infected with HIV • Infected population/Total population • Also used to show relative change • More to come…

  6. Types of Relative Quantities • Ratio • Used to compare the same type of variable from two sources • Example: • California’s population is 33,872,000 • Oregon’s population is 3,421,000 • How many times larger is CA than OR? • Divide CA/OR = 9.90 • CA is almost 10 times larger

  7. Types of Relative Quantities • Rates • Used to compare different types of variables • Examples • Miles per hour • Tickets per person • Crimes per 1000 people

  8. How it works… • Let’s work with some absolute and relative quantities • HIV_Adults_By_Country_2001.xls • StateLotteries.xls

  9. Absolute Change • Describes the actual increase or decrease from a reference (or old/earlier) value to a new (or later) value • Formula • Absolute Change = new value – reference value

  10. Relative Change • Compares the absolute change to the reference value • Formula • Relative Change = Absolute Change Reference Value or = new value - reference value reference value • Convert relative change from fraction to % (with 2 decimal places) for readability purposes

  11. Try this… • Absolute and Relative Change

  12. More Percent Problems • Already discussed • Percent Change • Formula = (new-old)/old • Percentage of • Main Formula is part/whole=% • Absolute Change • Formula = new value – reference(old) value • Relative Change • Formula = Absolute Change/Reference Value

  13. New Percentage Problems • Percent More Than or “Times More Than” • Example: The life expectancy in Canada is 79.1 years; the life expectancy in the US is 76.0 years. • By how many percent is the life expectancy in Canada higher than the life expectancy in the US? • Answer - find percent change • (79.1-76.0)/76.0 = 0.041 or 4.1% • How many times as large is the life expectancy in Canada than the life expectancy in the US? • Answer – divide Canada LE/US LE • 79.1/76.0 = 1.041 times larger

  14. One More… • Percent Less Than • Same Example: The life expectancy in Canada is 79.1 years; the life expectancy in the US is 76.0 years. • By how many percent is the life expectancy of people in the US lower than the life expectancy in Canada? • Answer – find percent change but divide by Canadian LE • (76.0-79.1)/79.1 = -0.039 or -3.9%

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