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It is an assumption to hypothesis testing. I can not comment on the significance of a violation of these assumptions without knowing how the non-random sample was taken.
The process is called hypothesis testing. If you are inquiring on how to prove or disprove a claim, search for the article on wikipedia.
In statistical hypothesis testing you have a null hypothesis against which you are testing an alternative. The hypothesis concerns one or more characteristics of the distribution. It is easier to illustrate the idea of directional and non-directional hypothesis. In studying the academic abilities of boys and girls the null hypothesis would be that boys and girls are equally able. One directional hypothesis would be that boys are more able. The non-directional alternative would be that there is a gender difference. You have no idea whether boys are more able or girls - only that they are not the same.
forming a hypothesis is when you come up with an educated guess.. what you think it may be . testing a hypothesis is when you're testing to see if someone else's guess is right.
examining/ experimenting/ testing/ verifying... it depends on the type of hypothesis to an extent I think.