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Article: Cluster Analysis
- Article from:
- International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
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Cluster Analysis
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Quantitative social science often involves measurements of several variables for a number of cases (individuals or subjects). Searching for groupings, or
clusters
, is an important exploratory technique. Grouping can provide a means for summarizing data, identifying outliers, or suggesting questions to study.
A well-known clustering is that of stars into a main sequence, white giants, and red dwarfs, according to temperature and luminosity. The military has used cluster analysis of anthropometric data to reduce the number of different uniform sizes kept in inventory. Cluster analysis in marketing is called
market segmentation;
consumers are clustered ...