Perform a test for equal population variances

Question

Question: A large buyer of household batteries wants to decide which of two equally priced brands to purchase. To do this he takes a random sample of 100 batteries of each brand. The lifetimes measures in hours, of the batteries are recorded in the attached file. Before testing for the difference between the mean lifetimes of these two batteries, he must first determine whether the underlying population variances ar equal.

1. Perform a test for equal population variances. Report a p-value and interpret its meaning.

2. Based on the conclusion in part a, which test statistic should be used in performing a test for the existence of a difference between population means?

Units Produced by Operator 1 on Randomly Selected Days

Day	Units_Produced
1	33
2	29
3	38
4	42
5	34
6	27
7	36
8	43
9	36
10	29
11	39
12	39
13	35
14	30
15	35
16	43
17	33
18	38
19	36
20	33
21	36
22	42
23	32
24	35
25	33

Units Produced by Operator 2 on Randomly Selected Days   

Day	Units_Produced
1	31
2	32
3	25
4	35
5	31
6	29
7	31
8	34
9	40
10	27
11	36
12	33
13	26
14	31
15	27
16	22
17	31
18	29
19	42
20	33
21	29
22	30
23	35
24	26
25	27