APPLICATION OF THE MULTIVARIATE RUNS TEST TO COMPOSITIONAL DATA

Abstract

The graph median has recently been proposed as an alternative measure of central tendency in those instances when the arithmetic average is not a part of the data set. This property was illustrated with ternary diagrams by using a series of five three-component compositional data sets all of which had the same mean, but greatly differing patterns in their compositions. For these sets, a comparison of their means and, except for the case in which all compositions (hongite2) fell on the same line, a comparison of their variance would be of no value. Contemplation of this fact, suggested the need for a simple method that determines the extent to which two data sets with several components are coincident.