Tom had a great deal of difficulty in interpreting the factors. Factor II was clearly a measure of the intensity
of the metal. Factor III appeared to be a measure of shortness. But Factor I was only loosely identified as a measure
of compactness.
To summarize then, the three basic underlying factors of intensity, shortness, and compactness summarize
over 90% of the variance found in the original 11 variables. Tom felt that this finding would assist him in some of
his coming projects – one of which was to determine just how the total cost of each of the metallic objects was
derived. In other words, he could develop a regression model with Total Cost as the dependent variable and the three
basic factors as his independent variables.