Question

Scientists want to find out if higher levels of hydration lead to higher energy levels. They asked a group of 105 volunteers to track their daily water intake along with their daily energy level (low, medium, or high) for 60 days. If the volunteers who drank more water also report significantly higher energy levels than the volunteers who drank less water, can the researchers conclude that drinking more water causes an increase in energy levels? Explain.

Answer 1

There is no mathematical data given like how many volunteers reported high energy levels after drinking more water and what is the significance level. Through this data we calculate proportion which is used as mean of the data, we also need to know standard deviation through which test statistic is calculated which is used to determine p value. This p value is then compared with significance level to conclude whether there is sufficient evidence to support the claim or not. This is called hypothesis testing. So quantitatively researchers can't conclude without properly applying hypothesis testing.