Statistical hypothesis testing

Statistical hypothesis testing is an important tool scientists use to figure out if a result they have seen in their research is due to chance or is actually true.

Imagine a scientist wants to find out if frogs jump higher if they are given a certain type of food. To do this, she collects some frogs, feeds them the special food, and then measures how high they jump. She then compares the average jump height of the frogs who got the food to the average jump height of frogs that didn't get the food.

The scientist can use a statistical hypothesis test to see if the difference between the two groups is big enough to be meaningful, or if it's just due to random chance. The scientist would use the test to have a way of measuring how likely it is that the difference between the two groups happened by chance.

If the test shows that the difference isn't likely due to chance, then the scientist can conclude that the food affects the frog's jump height. But if the test shows that the difference is likely due to chance, then the scientist doesn't have enough evidence to make that conclusion.