Question

1. In forming a hypothesis for a statistical test of significance, what is the null hypothesis representing ?

Answer 1

A null hypothesis is rejected if the observed data is significantly unlikely to have occurred if the null hypothesis were true. In this case, the null hypothesis is rejected and an alternative hypothesis is accepted in its place. If the data is consistent with the null hypothesis, then the null hypothesis is not rejected. In neither case is the null hypothesis or its alternative proven; the null hypothesis is tested with data and a decision is made based on how likely or unlikely the data is