Question

What is the difference between an F statistic and an F test? or are they the same thing? (anova)

Answer 1

An F statistic is a value which we get when we need an ANOVA test or a regression analysis to find out whether means between two populations are significantly different which is similar to a T statistic . An F test tells us if a group of variables are jointly significant instead T test is done for single variable.

Whenever we talk about the F-Test we actually talk about the F-Test to Compare Two Variances. However, the f-statistic is used in a variety of tests including regression analysis, the Chow test,the Scheffe Test (a post-hoc ANOVA test) etc.

Hence they are not exactly the same. Both are used for different applications.