Question

A farmer is trying out a planting technique that he hopes will increase the yield on his pea plants. The average number of pods on one of his pea plants is 145 pods with a standard deviation of 100 pods. This year, after trying his new planting technique, he takes a random sample of his plants and finds the average number of pods to be 147. He wonders whether or not this is a statistically significant increase. What are his hypotheses and the test statistic?

a. State the null and alternative hypothesis.

Answer 1

The null and alternative hypothesis would be:

• Null Hypothesis: The new planting technique does not lead to a statistically significant increase in the average number of pods on pea plants
• Alternative Hypothesis: The new planting technique leads to a statistically significant increase in the average number of pods on pea plants.

What are the hypothesis assumptions?

The null hypothesis assumes that there is no significant difference, while the alternative hypothesis (Ha) suggests that there is a significant increase in the average number of pods.

The test statistic that would be used in this scenario depends on the sample size, the population standard deviation, and whether the assumptions of the normal distribution are met. Common test statistics for this type of hypothesis test include the z-test and the t-test.