In hypothesis testing, the first crucial step is formulating two statements: the null hypothesis and the alternative hypothesis. These statements are derived from the problem context and are essential for guiding the analysis. The null hypothesis, denoted as \( H_0 \) (or \( H_{\text{naught}} \)), represents a claim about a population parameter that we assume to be true. This parameter can be a mean (\( \mu \)), proportion (\( p \)), or standard deviation (\( \sigma \)), and it is typically expressed with an equality, such as \( \mu = 23 \) or \( p = 0.30 \).
For instance, if a researcher investigates the average age of students at a university and the enrollment office claims that the mean age is 23, the null hypothesis would be \( H_0: \mu = 23 \). This statement serves as the default assumption that will be tested against evidence from the data.
The alternative hypothesis, denoted as \( H_a \), represents the opposing claim that the researcher aims to support. It is formulated using the same parameter and value as the null hypothesis but incorporates a different relational symbol: either less than, greater than, or not equal to. In the previous example, if the researcher wants to test whether students are younger than the claimed average, the alternative hypothesis would be \( H_a: \mu < 23 \).
Keywords in the problem statement, such as "greater than," "less than," or "not equal to," help determine the appropriate relational symbol for the alternative hypothesis. For example, if a business journal seeks to estimate the percentage of companies with female CEOs and aims to prove that this percentage is greater than 20%, the null hypothesis would be \( H_0: p = 0.20 \), while the alternative hypothesis would be \( H_a: p > 0.20 \).
Understanding how to construct these hypotheses is vital, as the null hypothesis provides a baseline for testing, while the alternative hypothesis indicates the direction of the test. This foundational knowledge sets the stage for further statistical analysis and decision-making based on the evidence collected.