Talk:Two-tailed test

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[edit] Please clarify and provide reference

A two-tailed test is used when the two samples being compared are related in some way. For example, you would use a two-tailed test if one random sample was 15 quarter horses and the second sample was 15 sires or dams of those same horses. A one-tailed test is appropriate if no known relationship exists between the samples, for example, two random samples of 15 unrelated quarter horses. --206.208.110.32 20:58, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

Is this actually correct? It doesn't seem to agree with the formal definitions I could find. --Jethero 15:48, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

I don't think so. I have to admit that I don't know much about this, but everything I've seen, and all the people I've talked to that actually do know about this disagree with 206.208.110.32's definition. 66.245.2.167 02:37, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

The definition by 206.208.110.32 above is actually talking about "paired" samples and has nothing to do with "two-tailed" tests.

[edit] Renaming this page

Problem: if you type in "one-tailed" it just says there is no such page. It would not make sense to create a separate page to define "one-tailed"; both one-tailed and two-tailed are more appropriately discussed on the same page. But, it wouldn't work very well to redirect "one-tailed" to this page, because someone might get confused and think "one-tailed" means the same thing as "two-tailed". I suggest renaming this page to "One-tailed and two-tailed tests" and putting redirects so anyone typing in "two-tailed", "two-tailed test", "two tailed test", "one-tailed", etc. etc. will find this page. What do others think -- is it OK if I rename it? --Coppertwig 12:51, 21 November 2006 (UTC)