Analysis of variance (abbreviated as ANOVA) is used when multiple sample cases are involved. As stated earlier, the significance of the difference between the means of two samples can be judged through either z-test or the t-test, but the difficulty arises when we happen to examine the significance of the difference amongst more than two sample means at the same time. The ANOVA technique enables us to perform this simultaneous test and as such is considered to be an important tool of analysis in the hands of a researcher. Using this technique, one can draw inferences about whether the samples have been drawn from populations having the same mean.
The ANOVA technique is important in the context of all those situations where we want to compare more than two populations such as in comparing the yield of crop from several varieties of seeds, the gasoline mileage of four automobiles, the smoking habits of five groups of university students and so on. In such circumstances one generally does not want to consider all possible combinations of two populations at a time for that would require a great number of tests before we would be able to arrive at a decision. This would also consume lot of time and money, and even then certain relationships may be left unidentified (particularly the interaction effects).
Therefore, one quite often utilizes the ANOVA technique and through it investigates the differences among the means of all the populations simultaneously. ANOVA is essentially a procedure for testing the difference among different groups of data for
homogeneity. ―The essence of ANOVA is that the total amount of variation in a set of data is broken down into two types, that amount which can be attributed to chance and that amount which can be attributed to specified causes.‖ There may be variation between samples and also within sample items. ANOVA consists in splitting the variance for analytical purposes. Hence, it is a method of analysing the variance to which a response is subject into its various components corresponding to various sources of variation.
Thus, through ANOVA technique one can, in general, investigate any number of factors which are hypothesized or said to influence the dependent variable. One may as well investigate the differences amongst various categories within each of these factors which may have a large number of possible values. If we take only one factor and investigate the differences amongst its various categories having numerous possible values, we are said to use one-way ANOVA and in case we investigate two factors at the same time, then we use two-way ANOVA. In a two or more way ANOVA, the interaction (i.e., inter-relation between two independent variables/factors), if any, between two independent variables affecting a dependent variable can as well be studied for better decisions.
