Critical values?

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Critical values?
Message posted by Tom Henry (via 195.93.33.186) on November 5, 2001 at 8:07 AM (ET)

Please can you help me, this is really urgent. With spearmans rank, i have the 'df', the 't' and all the rest, but i don't understand how the critical vlaue is found. My df is 10 and my 't' rating is 9.2. Please can you either simply tell me what my critical value is or how to find it because my instructions are no help. Thanks very much, i won't forget this.

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Re: Critical values?
Message posted by Tomi (via 154.32.143.252) on November 5, 2001 at 6:44 PM (ET)

The critical value will depend on the significance level for your test. You can look them up in a set of statistical tables.

Try http://www.statsoftinc.com/textbook/stathome.html and look up the "Distribution tables."

Your value of 9.2 cetainly exceeds the critical values for df=10, but you need to be aware that you are using an approximation by using a t-test on a spearmans rank correlation. It is possible to get tables of critical values of r_s, although I don't know where on the internet.

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