Basic Hierarchical Cluster Analysis

The method used in Aabel is called the weighted pair-group with arithmetic averaging. When objects/observations are defined by a set of numeric variables, each object (worksheet row) is positioned in a multi-dimensional space of a dimension proportional to the number of variables (worksheet columns) used to define the object.

The dissimilarity/similarity measures in Aabel are based on one of the following options:

• The correlation coefficient (Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient)
• Euclidean distance similarity (straight line)
• Standardized Euclidian distance coefficient
• Manhattan distance similarity measure

The dendrogram displayed below was generated using the geochemical data (from the Sudbury Structure) published by Naldrett, A.J., Hewins, R.H., Dressler, B.O., and Rao, B.V. (1984).