How do scientists use the null hypothesis?
Before starting an experiment scientists formulate an hypothesis, which is a statement concerning their expectations regarding the outcome of the experiment. For example, “Organic fertilizer is better than chemical fertilizer for enhancing plant growth”. The null hypothesis is the opposite: “Organic fertilizer is NOT better than chemical fertilizer for enhancing plant growth”. One performs the experiment by planting 2 groups of plants, in identical soil, with identical light and uses organic fertilizer on one group and chemical fertilizer on the other. They measure the plants everyday. By the end of the experiment they determine if the organically fertilized group is statistically significantly taller than the chemically fertilized group. The use of statistics is important in these types of experiments because there is variability in plant growth. Not all of the organically grown plants are taller or smaller, just a significantly greater number of plants are taller or smaller. If the o
When stating the Null Hypothesis- you are in effect saying that there is no difference in effect…. There would be equal with a treatment affect and equal amount of people w/ out a treatment effect. IE. You are testing a new drug… and when in fact the drug works you are rejecting the null and accepting the alternative. Type 1 error is when you accept the null,” saying the treatment doesn’t work when in actuality it does. Type 2 is when you accept you accept the alternative,” saying the treatment works when it really doesn’t. There are many different tests in statistics you can perform to prove or disprove differences. T- tests… anovas…
