STAT writing assignment 2.docx - Samantha Corey STAT 380...

Samantha Corey
STAT 380
Writing Assignment 2
1. H0: p <= 0.5
H1: p > 0.5
For the null hypothesis to be rejected, the poll would have to show that more than half the
people supported legalization. In order to fail to reject the null hypothesis, the poll would
show that half or less than half of people supported the idea.
2. The null hypothesis can never be accepted because you must first assume that it’s true to
come to any conclusions. In order to test the hypothesis that more than half of the voters
support legalization, we must assume that the opposite of that is true. Using what we
know about the null hypothesis, we can assume it is true and test if the alternative
hypothesis contradicts this. If the alternative hypothesis contradicts the null, then we can
reject the null. However, if the alternative fails to contradict the null, we can only say that
we failed to reject the null hypothesis. Just because we did not gather evidence that the
null can be contradicted, that does not mean that it doesn’t exist somewhere. And it does
not make sense to accept a hypothesis that you proved was “acceptable” by assuming that
is was correct to begin with.