R help - Mar 2009 - Is this sample size big enough to test for statistical significance?

Dear R community,
 
Is this sample size large enough to study differences between two groups of the
populations?
 
Q1: do the body temperatures differ between the two groups of the overwintering
turtles juveniles and adults?
 
One group (adults) has 6 turtles
Second group (juveniles) has 1 turtle.
 
There are 3 replications, i.e. the experiment was repeated over the three years,
but using different turtles.
 
We had about 130 observations (daily body temperature) per each turtle per year.
 
I would like to test for monthly or daily differences in body temperature
between the two groups controlling for month and year effects. I understand that
one number of observations in the second group is not enough, but there are
three replications and many observations per one subject.
 
Thanks.
_________________________________________________________________
[[elided Hotmail spam]]

[[elided Hotmail spam]]
	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

J S <yulya258 <at> hotmail.com> writes:

------------------------
Is this sample size large enough to study differences between two groups of
the populations?
 
Q1: do the body temperatures differ between the two groups of the
overwintering turtles juveniles and adults?
 
 One group (adults) has 6 turtles
 Second group (juveniles) has 1 turtle.
 
There are 3 replications, i.e. the experiment was repeated over the three
years, but using different
 turtles. 
 
We had about 130 observations (daily body temperature) per each turtle per 
year.
--------------------------
This is not a count problem, where you often can tell the numbers required 
without knowing the characteristics of your result set, but a continuous 
variable is involved. 

Without knowing at least approximately the statistics of the body temperature
everything is possible.

Dieter