Question

1. a newspaper article reports that the proportion of poisonous snakes living in a local state park is 0.21. a wildlife researcher disputes this claim. when a hypothesis test is conducted, the null hypothesis is written as ( h_{0}: p = 0.21 ). what is wrong with this?

a. nothing is wrong.
b. an incorrect sign is being used in the null hypothesis.
c. it is not necessary for the symbol ( p ) to be included in the null hypothesis.
d. the number given in the null hypothesis is not correct.
e. without knowing the wildlife researchers theory, we cannot assess the validity of the null hypothesis.

Explanation:

In hypothesis testing, the null hypothesis \(H_0\) is a statement of no difference or no effect. Here, the claim is about the proportion \(p\) of poisonous snakes. The null hypothesis \(H_0: p = 0.21\) is a valid statement as it represents the status - quo claim (the claim from the newspaper article) that the researcher is disputing. The alternative hypothesis would be formulated based on the researcher's claim (e.g., \(H_1: p
eq0.21\) if the researcher just disputes the equality, \(H_1: p > 0.21\) or \(H_1: p < 0.21\) if there is a direction). The symbol \(p\) is appropriate for a proportion, the sign \(=\) is the correct sign for the null hypothesis (the null hypothesis always has an equality - type sign in the context of parameter testing for a single proportion), and the number \(0.21\) is the value from the claim.

Answer:

A. Nothing is wrong.