The Analysis of Variance - Essay Example

Running head: UNDERSTANDING ANALYSIS OF Understanding Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) here> Making decisions is a crucial part of everybody’s life. Wanting to minimize regrets, we consider a lot of factors before coming up with the decision we think is the best. Who wants to make bad decisions anyway? Will I use this brand of toothpaste or that? Is there a significant difference between the content of Coke and diet Coke? Do I have to take this vitamins or not really? The questions could go on and on. What statistics offers us is this: it allows us to “make intelligent decisions” (Bluman, 1998). Resulting from our observations, we can make a hypothesis. This hypothesis will be tested, the result of which will then be used as a basis for making a decision ( Kreyszig, 2003, p. 1118). So how is a hypothesis tested? Statistical tests are available - some you may have heard of, others may sound new. These are: z- and t-test for single mean and two means, which are used for large samples (n≥30) and small samples (n Read More