Mathematics
ANOVA (Analysis of Variance)
Quick fact
ANOVA was developed by Ronald Fisher in the 1920s and its name was originally applied to agricultural experiments where he analyzed the variance between different crop yields.
Why this is interesting
Imagine you're testing three different fertilizers on plant growth. If you just compare pairs with multiple t-tests, your chance of a false positive soars. ANOVA gives you a single, reliable test—how does it pull that off?