what is an f test in statistics
The F-test is designed to test if two population variances are equal. It does this by comparing the ratio of two variances. So, if the variances are equal, the ratio of the variances will be 1. If the null hypothesis is true, then the F test-statistic given above can be simplified (dramatically). This ratio of sample variances will be test statistic used. If the null hypothesis is false, then we will reject the null hypothesis that the ratio was equal to 1 and our assumption that they were equal.