Combinatorial designCombinatorial design theory is the part of combinatorial mathematics that deals with the existence, construction and properties of systems of finite sets whose arrangements satisfy generalized concepts of balance and/or symmetry. These concepts are not made precise so that a wide range of objects can be thought of as being under the same umbrella. At times this might involve the numerical sizes of set intersections as in block designs, while at other times it could involve the spatial arrangement of entries in an array as in sudoku grids.
Factorial experimentIn statistics, a full factorial experiment is an experiment whose design consists of two or more factors, each with discrete possible values or "levels", and whose experimental units take on all possible combinations of these levels across all such factors. A full factorial design may also be called a fully crossed design. 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.
Mutually orthogonal Latin squaresIn combinatorial mathematics, two Latin squares of the same size (order) are said to be orthogonal if when superimposed the ordered paired entries in the positions are all distinct. A set of Latin squares, all of the same order, all pairs of which are orthogonal is called a set of mutually orthogonal Latin squares. This concept of orthogonality in combinatorics is strongly related to the concept of blocking in statistics, which ensures that independent variables are truly independent with no hidden confounding correlations.
Design of experimentsThe design of experiments (DOE or DOX), also known as experiment design or experimental design, is the design of any task that aims to describe and explain the variation of information under conditions that are hypothesized to reflect the variation. The term is generally associated with experiments in which the design introduces conditions that directly affect the variation, but may also refer to the design of quasi-experiments, in which natural conditions that influence the variation are selected for observation.