Alternative Hypothesis

The alternative hypothesis is the assumption that there is a statistically significant difference between two sets of data. This is essentially the opposite of the null hypothesis. The alternative hypothesis is accepted if the null hypothesis is rejected.

What this might mean in practice is that there is a statistical difference between the number of defects actually found in a sample and the number that would be expected if there were no additional factors influencing the result.

The alternative hypothesis is generally denoted as H₁ or H_A.