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Lesson 3 The Experiment
Now that you've chosen your question and
proposed a hypothesis, the scientific method now requires
you to perform experiments to test that hypothesis. If the
experiments show that your hypothesis is correct, it then becomes
scientific theory. If the experiments do not prove your hypothesis,
then your hypothesis must be rejected or modified.
An interesting example that you may already know
about:- in the field of astronomy, scientists previously believed
that the planets in our galaxy used to circle the earth. Subsequently,
through the scientific method, it was actually shown that the planets
actually orbit in concentric circles around the sun. Later, this
theory was further modified, as the planets' respective orbits were
found to be elliptical, and not circular.
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Variables are things (or factors)
that have an effect on your experiment. There are three
kinds of variables that you need to use in your experiment.
They are known as independent, dependent, and control
variables.
This is the variable that changes
throughout the experiment. You will change this variable
intentionally in order to see how it affects the other
variable known as the dependent variable. In our sample
experiment, the price of the hamburger meat is the
independent variable that would be changed by introducing
different meat of different prices.
The dependent variable changes in
response to the independent variable. In our example,
the level of greasiness of the hamburger would be
the dependent variable, as it would change depending
on the price of the hamburger meat.
The variables that are not changed
are called control variables. In the example above,
the independent variable is the price of hamburger
meat, and the dependent variable is the level of greasiness.
In a control, all variables are identical to the original
experiment, except for the independent variable. The
variables that are identical in both the original
experiment and the control are called the control
variables.
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