Explain a Null Hypothesis

Maybe you are working on a science product and you need to explain a null hypothesis. Perhaps you are just doing some research on your own, came across the term, and now you would like to know what it means for your own personal use.

In the simplest terms, a null hypothesis is one that turns out to be incorrect. Let's work through the beginning stages of an experiment in order to correctly and thoroughly illustrate to you not only what a null hypothesis is, but how a null hypothesis is reached.

How a Null Hypothesis is Reached

Forming an Initial Hypothesis

A major and crucial component of the scientific method is forming a hypothesis. In fact, this step occurs very early on in the process. Without a hypothesis, there would never be an experiment.

You might think that a hypothesis is just a question or just some vague idea of what the person wants to research. However, before forming a hypothesis, a good scientist has already done some research. Perhaps they read some books or maybe they based the hypothesis off of actions that they have observed more than once. In any case, a hypothesis is a statement or a question that the scientist wants to research and answer; however, some background information has already been obtained.

Therefore, in sum, a hypothesis is what is being tested when an experiment is being conducted.

Experiment

Now that the person has a hypothesis, the researcher will conduct a series of experiments to reach a conclusion. Sometimes, the individual will discover that he or she made a hypothesis that is now going to lead to a series of new information. On the other hand, sometimes the researcher will reach a road block and will realize that the original hypothesis was incorrect.

Let us take a very basic example here. It does not even necessarily need to be scientific. Let us say that you observed a rock move across your desk by itself. You hypothesize that the wind blowing in from the open window caused it to move. You go on to test the experiment. However, during your research, you find that wind blowing at the speed at which it was blowing could not move a rock of that size by itself. Now what do you have?

The Null Hypothesis!

You would now have a null hypothesis. Your original statement that the wind moved the rock across the window was incorrect. However, does this incident mean that the entire experiment is compromised or destroyed? Certainly not! What you have done is to open the pathway for even more research. Yes, you now know that the wind did not move the rock, but what exactly did? You can take the new information and now try to figure out what exactly moved that rock.

Is it "Bad" to Have a Null Hypothesis?

Well, if every single time that you go to conduct an experiment, you end up with a null hypothesis and wind up learning nothing from it, then you have a problem. However, if your null hypotheses tend to lead you to even better discoveries, you are certainly on the right track! As in many situations, it is not bad to make mistakes - as long as you learn from them and work to correct them.