Decomposition of the total variation

One of the steps involved in oneway analysis of variance. In examining the differences among means one-way ANOVA involves the decomposition of the total variation observed in the dependent variable. This variation is measured by the sum of squares corrected for the mean. Analysis of variance is so named because it examines the variability or variation in the sample (dependent variable) and, based on the variability, determines whether there is reason to believe that the population means differ. In other words, this is the separation of the variation observed in the dependent variable into the variation due to the independent variables plus the variation due to error.