Writing an hypothesis

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Chapter 3: Experimental design - Setting up a fair trial

Writing an hypothesis

An hypothesis is an educated guess as to what you expect the outcome to be. It needs to take into account all the available information, the variables to be tested and what data is be recorded.

The hypothesis is the basis for the whole experiment and as such will determine the type of statistical testing to be performed on the observed data.

Start by writing down in your own words what you want to examine and then form a more defined question for your hypothesis.

Have a look at this example and think about how you would write the hypothesis.

Example

Why is the trial to be carried out?

To decide whether Diet A is more efficient than Diet B.
Part 1:	Find the overall average food conversion ratio (FCR) for each diet.
Part 2:	Find the food cost per kilogram for each diet.

This can now be simply stated as:

Hypothesis: Diet A is more efficient than Diet B

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