The alternative hypothesis is the hypothesis used in hypothesis testing that is contrary to the null hypothesis. It is usually taken to be that the observations are the result of a real effect (with some amount of chance variation superposed).
Alternative Hypothesis
See also
Hypothesis, Hypothesis Testing, Null HypothesisExplore with Wolfram|Alpha
References
Gonick, L. and Smith, W. The Cartoon Guide to Statistics. New York: Harper Perennial, p. 140, 1993.Kenney, J. F. and Keeping, E. S. Mathematics of Statistics, Pt. 1, 3rd ed. Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand, p. 166, 1962.Referenced on Wolfram|Alpha
Alternative HypothesisCite this as:
Weisstein, Eric W. "Alternative Hypothesis." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/AlternativeHypothesis.html