Jump to content

Statistical hypothesis test

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Revision as of 16:14, 11 March 2008 by Baccyak4H (talk | changes) (tried to make less complex and more accurate)

A statistical hypothesis test is a statistical method used to answer a question based on some data. The question is known as the hypothesis.

A statistical test calculates a statistic (a number) to summarize what the data say about the hypothesis. Its value is compared to a critical value which assumes the hypothesis is true. Values more extreme than the critical value are taken to be evidence that the hypothesis is false.