Question

Do men and women save different amounts of money? A study asks 100 randomly selected men and women between the ages of 25 and 60, "How much they saved in a savings account or similar type account in the past six months?" How should we write the alternative hypothesis? Let mum = population mean amount saved for men and muw = population mean amount saved for women.

A. Ha: mum - muw = 0
B. Ha: mum -muw > 0
C. Ha: mum - muw < 0
D. Ha: mum - muw does not equal 0

Answer 1

D. Ha: mum - muw does not equal 0

Explanation:

Alternative hypothesis Ha is a claim or attempt to prove that a new theory is true compared to the old one. It tries to prove that a variable is different from its mean.

For the case above, the claim only established that there may be difference between the amount of money men and women save. It does not state if any of them is greater. Therefore, the alternative hypothesis is that the difference between the mean amount men saved and the mean amount women saved is not equal to zero.

Ha: mum - muw does not equal 0