Let be the incidence matrix of a set system. The balanced incomplete block design overlap counts give . On the zero-sum subspace its eigenvalue is ; on the constant vector its eigenvalue is . Therefore has matrix rank . Since a product cannot have larger rank than either factor,
This proves Fisher's inequality for block designs directly. The incomplete, nontrivial hypotheses ensure the positive eigenvalue needed for this argument.
Write the binary incidence matrix of a set system as to avoid confusing it with a sample size. Then
counts the number of blocks containing treatment , and for , counts blocks containing both treatments. The displayed structure therefore makes every treatment replication equal to and every pair concurrence equal to .
Assume the usual nonempty block design, with and . If , any block containing one treatment contains every other treatment: otherwise that treatment's replication would exceed its concurrence with the omitted one. Every block is consequently complete, so and . With random allocation within blocks this is a randomized complete block design. If , the design is a balanced incomplete block design. Counting partners of a fixed treatment in its blocks gives
For , gives , hence . Moreover has eigenvalue on the -dimensional zero-sum subspace and eigenvalue on the constant direction. Thus , while . This proves , the Fisher's inequality for block designs. The case allows singleton blocks; their lack of connectedness prevents general treatment comparison after block adjustment, but does not invalidate the rank inequality.
First ignore the day information and use a one-way normal linear model with five group means and independent errors of common variance. There are observations. The analysis of variance has treatment, residual and corrected-total statistical degrees of freedom , respectively. The mean squares in ANOVA give
Under equal treatment means this has the F-distribution with degrees. It exceeds the given upper critical value , so the unblocked analysis rejects equality at .
The actual day allocation omits a different treatment on each of the five days. Hence it is a balanced incomplete block design with
Every pair occurs on exactly the three days omitting neither member. In the additive two-way analysis of variance, use an intercept, four independent treatment contrasts and four day contrasts. The design is connected, so the model rank is and its residual has statistical degrees of freedom. Day effects and treatment effects are not orthogonal, because a different treatment is absent each day; the unadjusted treatment sum of squares cannot be used for the adjusted test.
Enter days first and then treatments. The supplied sequential sums of squares give
The day, treatment-after-day, residual and corrected-total statistical degrees of freedom are . Under the additive normal linear model and the null of equal treatment effects, the adjusted numerator and residual squared lengths are independent chi-squared quantities, so the ratio has the F-distribution with degrees. It is below even the given critical value . After accounting for days there is no significant treatment difference at either or . This inference assumes independent homoscedastic normal errors and an additive day effect; with one observation per observed treatment–day cell, unrestricted interactions cannot also be fitted.