A professor in the accounting department of a business school claims that there is much more variability in the final exam scores of students taking the introductory accounting course who are not majoring in accounting than for students taking the course who are majoring in accounting.
Random samples of 13 non-accounting majors and 10 accounting majors are taken from the professor's class roster in his large lecture, and the following results are computed based on the final exam scores:
Non-Accounting: n = 13 S2 = 210.2
Accounting: n = 10 S2 = 36.5
a. At the 0.05 level of significance, is there evidence to support the professor's claim?
b. Interpret the p-value.
c. What assumption do you need to make in (a) about the two populations in order to justify your use of the F test?