[R] Order of terms in formula changes aov() results

[Stuart Luppescu]

Hello, This one is very perplexing. I have teacher observation data,
with factors teacher ID, observer ID, component, grade and subject. When
I do this,

aov(data=ratings.prin.22, rating ~ obsid.f + tid.f + subject.f + grade.f + comp.f)

I get this:

Terms:
                  obsid.f     tid.f   grade.f    comp.f Residuals
Sum of Squares  306.23399 221.38173   1.70000  14.52831 279.05780
Deg. of Freedom        74        87         2         9      1406

This looks right. There are about 82 observers so 74 degrees of freedom
for obsid.f is OK. But if I do this (just reordering the terms in the
formula):

aov(data=ratings.prin.22, rating ~ comp.f + grade.f + subject.f + tid.f + obsid.f)

I get this:

Terms:
                  comp.f  grade.f subject.f    tid.f  obsid.f Residuals
Sum of Squares   15.0923  23.3968    5.9982 499.3568   0.0000  279.0578
Deg. of Freedom        9        4         4      152        3      1406

Now obsid.f only has 3 degrees of freedom and the sum of squares is
0.00. Could this be due to the unbalanced design?

If someone can explain this to me I would be very grateful.

-- 
Stuart Luppescu -=- slu .at. ccsr.uchicago.edu        
University of Chicago -=- CCSR 
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