Question 286403
An associate asks for your help in deciphering the following Anova table, indicating that a test of means was performed.  Unfortunately the person leaves before you can get any further explanation or detail, but you know the results must be presented before senior staff within twenty minutes!  

Use the formal 5-step hypothesis testing model to describe the test.  


    ANOVA                        
    Source of Variation    SS     df    MS        F      P-value   F crit
    Between Groups       700.0     2    350.0    4.00    0.0288    3.32
    Within Groups       2625.0    30    87.5            
                            
    Total               3325.0    32  

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Ho: u1=u2=u3
Ha: at least one of the means is different
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ANOVA is an F-Test
Numerator degrees of freedom = 3-1 = 2
Denominator degrees of freedom = # of data elts - 3 = 30
So # of data elements was 33.
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The critical value for the F-test was 3.32
The test statistic was 4 which resulted in a p-value of 2.88%
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Since the test statistic is greater than the critical value
we reject Ho. and conclude that at least one of the means is different.              
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The p-value is 2.88%, and we are rejecting Ho, 
so the value of alpha for the test was greater
than 2.88%.                                        
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Cheers,
Stan H.