Final answer:
To conduct a hypothesis test and determine if the mean weaning age in the United States is less than four years old, we need to set up the null and alternative hypotheses and use a one-sample t-test.
Step-by-step explanation:
To conduct a hypothesis test and determine if the mean weaning age in the United States is less than four years old, we need to set up the null and alternative hypotheses. The null hypothesis, denoted as H0, is that the mean weaning age in the United States is equal to four years. The alternative hypothesis, denoted as Ha, is that the mean weaning age in the United States is less than four years.
We will use a one-sample t-test to test these hypotheses. With a sample size of 21 U.S. mothers and a mean weaning age of nine months, we can calculate the t-statistic using the formula: t = (sample mean - population mean) / (sample standard deviation / sqrt(sample size)).
Once we have the t-statistic, we can compare it to the critical value from the t-distribution to determine if the difference between the sample mean and the population mean is statistically significant.