Question

I have two mean masses of 3.0887g and 2.5131g with standard deviations of 0.03714 and 0.02773 respectively.

How can I use the standard deviation to tell if the mean masses are significantly different?

Answer 1

Soln

The mass which has the smaller stanadard deviation is significantly different form the other mass. In the above example the second mass has smaller stnadard deiviation i.e. 0.02773 compare to the first mass which has standard deviation 3.0887, hence the second mass significantly different form first one.

This can be Experimentally proved by Student t-Test