Question

Lucy Baker is analyzing demographic characteristics of two television programs, American Idol (population 1) and 60 Minutes (population 2). Previous studies indicate no difference in the ages of the two audiences. (The mean age of each audience is the same.) Lucy plans to test this hypothesis using a random sample of 100 from each audience. Her null hypothesis is ____________.

Answer 1

The null hypothesis is H0; u1 - u2 = 0

The mean age of each audience is the same.

Explanation:

The null hypothesis (H0) tries to show that no significant variation exists between variables or that a single variable is no different than its mean. While an alternative Hypothesis (Ha) attempt to prove that a new theory is true rather than the old one. That a variable is significantly different from the mean.

Therefore, for the case above;

Let u1 represent the mean age of audience for American idol and

u2 represent the mean age of audience for 60 minutes.

The null hypothesis is H0; u1 - u2 = 0

The mean age of each audience is the same.