Power Analysis for the t-test

Power analysis for the t-test is a sample size planning procedure that determines how many participants are required to detect a mean difference of a given magnitude with acceptable probability. Formalised by Jacob Cohen in his 1969 and 1988 editions of Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences, it links four quantities — effect size (Cohen's d), significance level (α), statistical power (1 − β), and sample size — so that fixing any three allows calculation of the fourth.