Randomized Block Design: Field Experiment Simulator

Ecological field experiments live or die by their design. This simulator lays out a row of experimental plots across a field with a hidden fertility gradient, then lets you compare two classic designs — randomized block, which pairs a control and a treatment plot at every field position so the gradient cancels out, against completely randomized design, where treatment labels are shuffled across the whole field and the gradient leaks into the noise. Adjust replication, true effect size, measurement noise and gradient strength, watch the 3D plots update in real time, and read off a genuine paired or unpaired t-test, its p-value, and a Monte Carlo estimate of statistical power — the same reasoning ecologists use to plan how many plots a real study needs before a single seed goes in the ground.