FTEST
Returns the result of an F-test.
Syntax:
FTEST(data1, data2)
data1 and data2 are ranges or arrays (possibly of different size) containing numbers, on which the F-test is performed. The F-test calculates the likelihood that two samples have the same variance.
In effect, the sample variances of data1 and data2 are calculated. data1 and data2 are re-ordered if necessary so that data1 has the larger variance (σ1) and data2 the smaller (σ2), and an F_value is calculated as σ1/σ2. The result returned by FTEST is 2*FDIST(F_value; COUNT(data1)-1; COUNT(data2)-1). This is the two-tailed probability that the variances in data1 and data2 are not significantly different. (The internal algorithms used by Calc are more sophisticated than this).
Example:
FTEST({9,8,6,8}, {5,6,7})
returns approximately 0.82. The probability that the variances of these two samples are not significantly different is about 82%. Note: a real world example would need more data than this.
