<b>An approach to the decomposition of interaction in a factorial experiment with five factors</b> - doi: 10.4025/actasciagron.v34i1.12104

Abstract

Factorial experiments are widely employed in agricultural research. In these experiments, inferences related to the interaction between factors are fundamental. However, many researchers are still unable to analyze this type of experiment, and others do not consider the effect of interaction. This study aims to exemplify a scheme for unfolding the degrees of freedom and to demonstrate the relevance of this rearrangement when the interaction is significant. For these purposes, the response variable time of cooking bean grains was measured in minutes using a completely casualized experimental design, with two replications, arranged in a 2 x 2 x 3 x 2 x 2 factorial scheme (fivefold classification). The following factors were evaluated: bean genotypes (2 levels), salt type (2 levels), salt dose (3 levels), hydration time (2 levels) and storage time (2 levels). The results highlight the importance of unfolding the degrees of freedom of the interaction every time it is significant because the possibility of evaluating the interaction between factors leads to conclusions related to the dependence between the factors. These results are more coherent with biological systems, and the example shown provides a solid basis for minimizing errors in factorial experiments.