SnowsPenultimateNormalityTest: Test the uninteresting question of whether the data represents an
exact normal distribution.
Description
This function tests the null hypothesis that the data comes from an
exact normal population. This is a much less interesting/useful null
than what people usually want, which is to know if the data come from
a distribution that is similar enough to the normal to use normal
theory inference.
Usage
SnowsPenultimateNormalityTest(x)
Arguments
x
The data
Value
An object of class "htest" with components:
p.valueThe p-value
alternativea string representing the alternative hypothesis
methoda string describing the method
data.namea string describing the name of the data
Details
The theory for this test is based on the probability of getting a
rational number from a truly continuous distribution defined on the
reals.
The main goal of this test is to quickly give a p-value for those that
feel it necessary to test the uninteresting and uninformative null
hypothesis that the data represents an exact normal, and allows the
user to then move on to much more important questions, like "is the
data close enough to the normal to use normal theory inference?".
After running this test (or better instead of running this and any
other test of normality) you should ask yourself what it means to test
for normality and why you would want to do so. Then plot the data and
explore the interesting/useful questions.