Beschreibung:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Satterthwaite's approximation of the distribution of a nonnegative linear combination of independent mean squares is addressed in this article. A measure is developed to quantify the closeness of this approximation by using certain optimization results given by THIBAUDEAU and STYAN (1985). The main advantage of the proposed measure is to provide a theoretical framework for determining conditions under which Satterthwaite's approximation may be inadequate. This is demonstrated in three examples portraying frequently encountered problems in analysis of variance.</jats:p>