Using Proof by Contradiction to Draw Conclusions
Uncertainty is a fact of life. We often have good evidence to support our claims or our beliefs. We seldom have irrefutable evidence of the important ones. In statistics, the process by which we gather information and link it as evidence to our claims or beliefs is called scientific, or hypothesis, testing. It is, at its heart, a proof by contradiction. A proof by contradiction goes something like this:
- Assume as true the opposite of what you are testing for.
- Envision what data should look like if that opposite were, in fact, true.
- Gather data relating to the claims, and compare the vision for the data and the actual data gathered.
- Draw a conclusion from the comparison and interpret ...
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