SELF TEST 10.46 Accounting Today identified top accounting firms in 10 geographic regions across the United States. All 10 regions reported growth in a recent year. The Southeast and Gulf Coast regions reported growths of 12.49% and 9.78%, respectively. A characteristic description of the accounting firms in the Southeast and Gulf Coast regions included the number of partners in the firm. The file [Accounting Partners 2] contains the number of partners. Source: Data extracted from Accounting Today, "The 2019 Top Firms and Regional Leaders," available at bit.ly/2xdQVVW. Region Southeast Southeast Number of Partners 235 138 Southeast 77 Southeast 61 Southeast 61 Southeast 46 Southeast 50 Southeast 38 Southeast 36 Southeast 52 Southeast 21 Southeast 13 Southeast 13 Southeast 26 Southeast Southeast Southeast Southeast Southeast Southeast 19 14 18 19 16 Southeast 14 Southeast 12 Gulf Coast 296 Gulf Coast 112 Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Gulf Coast 77 14 53 14 30 34 12 17 20 15 11 25 9 a. At the 0.05 level of significance, is there evidence of a difference in the variability in numbers of partners for Southeast region accounting firms and Gulf Coast accounting firms? b. Determine the p-value in (a) and interpret its meaning. c. What assumption do you have to make about the two populations in order to justify the use of the F test? d. Based on (a) and (b), which t test defined in Section 10.1 should you use to test whether there is a significant difference in the mean number of partners for Southeast region accounting firms and Gulf Coast accounting firms?