Differences between ordinal scale and nominal scale? - Answers

I've included a couple of links which should explain better the differences among the four levels of measurement: Nominal, Ordinal, Interval and Ratio. The nominal level can be thought of as the "name" level. I'll give you an example of nominal level of measurement. Perhaps you are collecting data on the types of cars that go through an intersection. You classify the vehicles passing by as trucks, cars and motorcycles and count how many of each pass by. Ordinal is the "order" level, where some natural order of data is possible. The difference between measurements has no physical meaning. An example of ordinal level of measurement. A hospital asks in the emergency room, for patients to describe their pain on a level of 1 to 10, which 10 being the most severe. As given in the first link, it is interesting that there is not complete agreement on this system of classification.