When calculating the degrees of freedom for a hypothesis test comparing two population means with population variances that are unknown and assumed to be unequal, always round up the degrees of freedom to the next highest integer. This makes it more challenging to reject the null hypothesis which is a more conservative approach.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

When calculating the degrees of freedom for such a hypothesis test, the degrees of freedom are often calculated using the Welch-Satterthwaite equation, and the resulting value is typically rounded down to the nearest whole number, not up. This approach is used to maintain the conservativeness of the test without unnecessarily inflating the degrees of freedom.

When Calculating the Degrees of Freedom for a Hypothesis Test