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MajorIronMouse30
1. The Hypothetical Method Hypothetical reasoning attempts to…
1. The Hypothetical Method
Hypothetical reasoning attempts to provide explanations for unexplained phenomena. In using this kind of reasoning, scientists formulate hypotheseswhat you might call “rational guesses”that apply the available information to formulate a possible explanation for something that has been observed.
The four stages of the hypothetical method are as follows:
1. A problem or mystery is identified.
2. A hypothesisa tentative explanation for the problemis formulated.
3. The implications of the hypothesis are drawn. This means that scientists explore what would be the case if the hypothesis were correct/true.
4. These implications are tested. In order to prove or disprove the hypothesis, it must be tested to see whether its implications can be verified. If the implications are verified, there is (at least some) reason to believe that the hypothesis is correct.
The final aspect of the hypothetical method, testability, sets an important criterion for what may count as a plausible hypothesis. If an explanation cannot be tested and confirmed, then the hypothetical method cannot be fulfilled. Hence, only testable explanations may serve as plausible hypotheses, or “rational guesses,” for the hypothetical method.
Us knowledge of the hypothetical method to answer the questions that follow.
Question 1
You leave a grape on the windowsill during the summer, and several days later you notice a raisin where the grape had been. You know that raisins are dried grapes.
Which of the following are plausible hypotheses for the phenomenon you have observed? Check all that apply.
The heat of the sun turned your grape into a raisin.
The disappearance of the grape and the appearance of the raisin have nothing to do with each other, and there must be a supernatural reason to explain what has happened. For example, perhaps a fairy or an angel took away the grape and replaced it with the raisin.
Someone ate your grape and dropped a raisin.
A bird picked up the grape from the windowsill, and you may have spilled raisins when you were eating cereal this morning.
The two events are unrelated, and there must be a supernatural reason to explain what has occurred. For example, perhaps a witch cast a spell that transformed the grape into a raisin.
Question 2
Charles Darwin spent several weeks on the Galapagos Islands collecting research samples. He noticed that each island had finches (a kind of bird), but the finches on each island differed slightly from those on the other islands, mainly in the structure of their beaks. Darwin later hypothesized that each island’s finch was a distinct species that had evolved over time, and that the differences in beak structure developed as a response to the different food available. This hypothesis challenged the then widely held account of creation found in the Bible and the view that species are immutable and unchanging. Scientists now know Darwin’s theory as the theory of evolution, and his hypothesis has been scientifically verified.
Which of the following accurately describe the development of Darwin’s hypothesis? Check all that apply.
Darwin developed his hypothesis as a tentative explanation for differences in finch beaks.
Darwin’s hypothesis was wrong because the finches were created at the same time that the world was created, as explained in the Bible, and species did not evolve over time.
Darwin’s hypothesis was a tentative explanation for an observable difference between birds living in different conditions.
Darwin’s hypothesis was a tentative explanation for the mystery of how species evolved over time.
Darwin did not collect a sufficient amount of data to form a proper hypothesis.
