I will do a research about effect of drying temperature and layer thickness on water yam using randomized block design with 2 factors.
Drying temperature consists of 3 levels and layer thickness consists of 2 levels, so that there are 6 treatment combinations. Each combination is replicated 3 times. The drying will be done using one cabinet dryer.
I have read some literatures that explain blocking is applied on replication. But can I actually block the drying temperature treatment? Because I think blocking the temperature treatment will spend shorter time than blocking the replications.
I really appreciate your responds. Thank you.
Blocking in experimental design is a technique used to remove variability caused by nuisance factors (factors that have some effect on the experiment but is of no interest to the researcher). Drying temperature and specimen thickness are key factors in your experiment. It is not advisable to use either of them as a blocking factor.
Dear Faizal,
As you said, the blocking factor in a randomized block design is usually considered as the batch of product that is going to be studied. Do you consider your replication as different batch of product (e.g. different harvesting or growing conditions, different storage, etc.) or as a simple replication of your drying process?
If you consider your 3 replication as process replicates, you can consider your blocking factor (hard to change factor) as the drying temperature. On the contrary, if you consider the replication as different batch of product, you should probably consider the batch as the proper blocking factor.
Regards,
MA
Hi Faizal:
The blocks are only applicable to the replicas to reduce the variability and reduce the experimental error. When you run your experiment and analyze the data, you will find at what temperature you can get a shorter drying time. There is no other way, unless you change experimental design.
Sincerely.
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