An analytical method for simple structure

Abstract

One of the most difficult parts of multiple-factor analysis for the student to learn is the rotation of the coordinate axes to simple structure. The complete graphical methods have been the most dependable. The work of interpreting these diagrams is not only tedious but it requires the development of a skill that many otherwise competent students are unable to master. The writer has tried many times to develop an analytical method which would eliminate the graphical methods of successive approximation. The method to be described here seems at last to be successful and practically feasible. It is equally applicable to unimodal and bimodal hyperplanes so that no restrictive assumptions need to be made about the positive or negative signs of the factorial components.