One-way analysis of variance
In statistics, one-way analysis of variance (abbreviated one-way ANOVA) is a technique that can used to compare means of two or more samples (using the F distribution). This technique can be used only for numerical response data, the "Y", and numerical or categorical input data, the "X".
The ANOVA tests the null hypothesis that samples in all groups are drawn from populations with the same mean values. To do this, two estimates are made of the population variance. These estimates rely on various assumptions (see below). The ANOVA produces an F-statistic, the ratio of the variance calculated among the means to the variance within the samples. If the group means are drawn from populations with the same mean values, the variance between the group means should be lower than the variance of the samples, following the central limit theorem. A higher ratio therefore implies that the samples were drawn from populations with different mean values.
Typically, however, the one-way ANOVA is used to test for differences among at least three groups, since the two-group case can be covered by a t-test (Gosset, 1908). When there are only two means to compare, the t-test and the F-test are equivalent; the relation between ANOVA and t is given by F = t2. An extension of one-way ANOVA is two-way analysis of variance that examines the influence of two different categorical independent variables on one dependent variable.
The results of a one-way ANOVA can be considered reliable as long as the following assumptions are met:
If data are ordinal, a non-parametric alternative to this test should be used such as Kruskal–Wallis one-way analysis of variance. If the variances are not known to be equal, a generalization of 2-sample Welch's t-test can be used.
ANOVA is a relatively robust procedure with respect to violations of the normality assumption.
...
Wikipedia