A statistical test used to compare means between groups or against a known value, especially with small sample sizes. The 't' refers to the t-distribution used when population standard deviation is unknown.
Named after the t-distribution developed by William Gosset in 1908, who published under the pseudonym 'Student' while working at Guinness brewery. He chose 't' as an arbitrary letter to represent his new distribution, which was needed when sample sizes were too small for normal distribution assumptions.
The t-test was literally invented at a beer brewery! Gosset needed to make decisions about beer quality with small batches, so he developed this test for situations where you don't have huge samples - proving that practical problems often drive the greatest statistical innovations.
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