Scientific Method Flashcards
While speaking to a colleague, a scientist makes the following statement: “I suggest that Bald Eagle eggs in northern Maine will have thinner shells than those from birds in southern Alaska due to increased levels of pesticides in the water.” This statement is a _________.
hypothesis
Which of the following is not representative of scientific methodology?
a) If the results of an experiment support the prediction that is being tested, the associated hypothesis can be considered proven correct.
b) Predictions and statements must be falsifiable.
c) Scientific methodology is not a series of linear steps.
d) Both inductive and deductive reasoning may be used within the methodological approach.
A
Which of the following lines of evidence did Alfred Wegener not use to substantiate his explanation of continental drift?
a) An alternating polarity to Earth’s magnetic field (i.e., geomagnetic reversals)
b)Palaeoclimatic data.
c) Greenland and Europe moving apart from one another.
d) Tides and lunar pull.
A
What piece of new evidence discredited the Theory of Continental Drift and informed the new Theory of Tectonic Plates?
a) Satellite measurements of the continents moving
b) Sea floor spreading
c) New fossil discoveries
d) Mountain range alignments
B
Wegener noted that a reptile fossil called _______________was found in eastern South America and western Africa as though its roughly circular range had been sliced in half and separated.
a) Mesosaurus
b) Lystrosaurus
c) None of the options are correct
d) Glossopteris
A
Which of the below was not evidence used by Alfred Wegner to construct his Theory of Continental Drift.
a) Fossil record
b) Puzzle fit of the continents
c) Magnetic strips at fault lines
d) Evidence of ice sheets near the equator and other paleoclimatic data
C
