Question

distinguish between cardinal and ordinal ​

Answer 1

Cardinal utility:

• It refers to the utility in terms of units/measured in terms of cardinal numbers, like 1, 2, 3, ... etc.
• It is based on a quantitative approach.
• It takes the unit of utils.
• Mostly used in the analysis of marginal utility.

Ordinal utility:

• It refers to the utility that can only be ranked as 'high'/'low'.
• It is based on a qualitative approach.
• It takes the unit of ranks.
• Mostly used in the analysis of indifference curves.

For example, if a consumer consumes a cup of coffee, he can rank his satisfaction as 3 or 4 or 5, etc, i.e., he can use cardinal numbers to rank his satisfaction. But to have an ordinal approach, he'll need to rank his satisfaction as 'high'/'low'.