What are the limitations of the null hypothesis?

Null hypothesis in statitsics

• I want to test if a sample mean of 25 comes from a population with a mean of 35, with a sample sigma of 4.0 . How do I write the null and alternative hypothesis?

• Answer:

  Hello existential, The null hypothesis in this case would be: H0: ? = 35 where ? is the population mean. That is, you want to test whether the population mean is 35, despite the fact that the sample mean is 25. The alternative hypothesis depends on whether you want to perform a one- or a two-tailed test. This depends on what you are interested in checking. You could either be interested in knowing if the population mean is different from 35 (either higher or lower than that value); or you may only be interested in checking, for example, if the population mean is lower than 35. You can find a good explanation of this at the following link: HyperStat -- One- and two-tailed tests http://davidmlane.com/hyperstat/A65596.html "A probability computed considering differences in both directions is called a "two-tailed" probability. The name makes sense since both tails of the sampling distribution are considered. There are situations in which an experimenter is concerned only with differences in one direction. [...] For instance, if a new drug treatment is developed, the main issue is whether or not it is better than a placebo. If the treatment is not better than a placebo, then it will not be used. It does not really matter whether or not it is worse than the placebo" So, if you are performing a two-tailed test, the alternative hypothesis would be Ha: µ ? 35 If you are performing a one-tailed test, the alternative hypothesis could be either Ha: µ < 35 or Ha: µ > 35 More information on the concept of null hypothesis can be found at HyperStat -- Null Hypothesis http://davidmlane.com/hyperstat/A29337.html Google search terms "null hypothesis" ://www.google.com.ar/search?hl=es&q=%22null+hypothesis%22&meta= I hope this helps! If you have any questions regarding my answer, please don't hesitate to request a clarification. Otherwise I await your rating and final comments. Best wishes! elmarto