Tuesday, February 7, 2012

What is a competing hypothesis?

My hypothesis is





IF ambush bug coloration determines where on a goldenrod flower they will be located THEN females should be found on top of the flower because they are yellow (matches the flower)



the "alternative" hypothesis is that ambush bug coloration has no effect on where they are found on the flower.



My group is supposed to come up with a couple competing hypotheses though and I can't figure out what to do.



A hypothesis is an IF and THEN statement. Does the competing hypothesis change the IF part or the THEN part or both?



I appreciate any insight into this.

What is a competing hypothesis?
A good competing hypo in this case would be any one which would explains the location of the bug on the flower due to something other than coloration of the bug, i.e. sugar content of the flower petal or something like that.


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