Factorial Experiments:

A factorial experiment is an experiment whose design consists of two or more factors, each
with discrete possible "levels". The treatment combinations take on all possible combinations of
these levels across all such factors. Experiments are often planned to investigate the effects of say,
different intensities of stimulus, different dates of planting, different categories of education etc.
The independent variable in the experiment such as education, planting, stimulus etc. are called
factors, while the dependent variable in the experiment such as intensities, different dates,
categories etc. at which a factor is held constant/fixed are called levels. Such an experiment allows
the investigator to study the effect of each factor on the response variable, as well as the effects of
interactions between factors on the response variable. A factorial design allows the effect of several
factors and even interactions between them to be determined with the same number of trials as are
necessary to determine any one of the effects by itself with the same degree of accuracy. When
treatments are consisting of all possible combinations of several levels of several factors and each
treatment is used the same number of times, the factorial experiment is known as fully crossed
design or complete factorial design.

It is customary to denote the factors by small letters a, b, c etc., and a particular level by
small letter as a subscript i.e. ai, bj, ch etc. A treatment is then determined by the combination of
different levels of factors ai, bj, ch,… etc. The experiment (possible combinations of factors at
different levels) is described as pn factorial experiments. Where n is the number of total factors
and each factor is considered at p levels. Thus 22 or 2x2 factorial experiment means 2 factors and
2 different levels. Similarly, 23 or 2x2x2 means 2 different levels of 3 factors.

For more than two factors, a 2k factorial experiment can usually be recursively designed
from a 2k−1 factorial experiment by replicating the 2k−1 experiment, assigning the first replicate to
the first (or low) level of the new factor, and the second replicate to the second (or high) level.
This framework can be generalized to, e.g., designing three replicates for three level factors, etc.
When there are many factors, many experimental runs will be necessary, even without replication.
At some point this becomes infeasible due to high cost or insufficient resources. In this case,
fractional factorial designs may be used. (∵ Fractional Factorial Designs are the experimental
designs consisting of a carefully chosen subset (fraction) of the experimental runs of a full factorial
design. The subset is chosen to expose information about the most important features of the
problem studied, while using a fraction of the effort of a full factorial design in terms of
experimental runs and resources).
Main Effects and Interaction Effects.
In factorial designs, the comparison of the treatment combinations is called Effects, which
are represented by capital letters A, B, C etc. There are three kinds of effects: main effects,
interaction effects, and simple effects. A main effect of the factor explained as, a measure of the
average change in effect produced by changing the level of the factor. It is measured independently
to other factors and said to be the effect of the factor only i.e. one independent variable on the
dependent variable—averaging across the levels of the other independent variable. Thus there is
one main effect to consider for each independent variable in the study. The main effect is
sometimes referring as an interaction of zero order.

There is an interaction effect when the effect of one independent variable depends on the
level of another. In factorial experiments it means, a measure of the extent to which the effect of
changing the levels of a factor or more factors depends on the levels of the factors.

Although this might seem complicated, you already have a natural understanding of
interactions. As an everyday example, assume your friend asks you to go to a movie with
another friend. Your response to him is, “well it depends on which movie you are going to
see and who else is coming.” You really want to see the big blockbuster summer hit but
have little interest in seeing the cheesy romantic comedy. In other words, there is a main
effect of type of movie on your decision. If your decision to go to see either of these movies
further depends on who he is bringing with him then there is an interaction.

Simple effects are a way of breaking down the interaction to figure out precisely what is going on.
An interaction simply informs us that the effects of at least one independent variable depend on
the level of another independent variable. Whenever an interaction is detected, researchers need to
conduct additional analyses to determine where that interaction is coming from. A simple effects
analysis provides researchers with a method of breaking down the interaction.

Advantages:
i. Factorial designs are more efficient than (One-Factor-At-a-Time) OFAT/(One way)
experiments. They provide more information at similar or lower cost. They can find
optimal conditions faster than OFAT experiments.
ii. Factorial designs allow additional factors to be examined at no additional cost.
iii. A factorial experiment is usually economical.
iv. When the effect of one factor is different for different levels of another factor, it cannot be
detected by an OFAT experiment design. Factorial designs are required to detect such
interactions.
 v. Factorial designs allow the effects of a factor to be estimated at several levels of the other
factors, yielding conclusions that are valid over a range of experimental conditions.
vi. The experiment yields unbiased estimates of effects, which are of wider applicability.
vii. Use of OFAT when interactions are present can lead to serious misunderstanding of how
the response changes with the factors.

Disadvantages:
i. When the number of factors is large (typically more than about 5 factors, but this does vary
by application), replication of the design can become operationally difficult.
ii. When there are many factors, many experimental runs will be necessary, even without
replication. For example, experimenting with 10 factors at two levels each produces
210=1024 combinations.
iii. factorial design has to be planned meticulously, as an error in one of the levels, or in the
general operationalization, will threaten a great amount of work.
iv. The experimental setup and the resulting statistical analysis is more complicated.
v. The experiment may be reduced to manageable size by confounding some effects
considered of little practical consequence.