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Significance Tests

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Road from Geochemistry to Geochemometrics
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Abstract

In this chapter, we present some of the most popular significance statistical tests, which are of great importance for the handling of experimental data. The current practice to document data quality in a geochemical study is to simply present the measured concentrations of major or trace elements in geochemical reference materials (GRMs), along with the literature values in a table. We present the four-step procedure FICI for the relevant statistical significance tests of Fisher F, Student t, and ANOVA, also called inferential statistics. These tests and the relevant equations are explained in detail. The inherent assumption of normality requires that discordant outlier-free data be used for FICI. The chapter ends with a brief explanation of the critical sample sizes for the “fit-for-purpose” concept, most useful for planning an experiment.

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Correspondence to Surendra P. Verma .

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Verma, S.P. (2020). Significance Tests. In: Road from Geochemistry to Geochemometrics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9278-8_7

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