Final answer:
In analysis of variance, population variance is measured by the MS values
Therefore, the correct answer is: option 'Population variance'.
Step-by-step explanation:
In analysis of variance (ANOVA), MS_values or mean squares measure the variances within and between the groups. Specifically, MS_within refers to the variance within groups and is an estimate of the population variance.
This accounts for the variability due to chance within each group. On the other hand, MS_between measures variance between the groups, indicating the variability due to differences among the group means.
MS_between is calculated by dividing the sum of squares between (SSbetween), which represents the variation among different samples, by its degrees of freedom.
Similarly, MS_within is found by dividing the sum of squares within (SSwithin), which represents the variation due to random error within samples, by its degrees of freedom.
If the null hypothesis of equal means across groups is not true, we typically observe that MS_between is larger than MS_within, suggesting that the group means are not all the same due to just random variation. The comparison of these mean squares forms the F statistic, which is used to determine whether to reject the null hypothesis in ANOVA.