Scientific Method Flashcards
What are the six stages of the scientific method in chronological order?
State the problem, gather information, form a hypothesis, test the hypothesis, analyse data, draw conclusions `
What is a hypothesis?
An educated guess or prediction
What is the independent variable?
The variable that is being changed, found on the x-axis and the left side of the data table
What is the dependent variable?
The variable that responds to the change that happens due to the independent variable, found on the y-axis and right side of the data table
What are the controlled variables?
Everything that remains constant and unchanged throughout the experiment
What is categorical data?
Qualitative data, contains one categorical variable, data is plotted on a column graph?
What is numerical data?
Quantitative data, contains two numerical variables, data is plotted on a scatter graph
What are the two sub types of categorical data?
Nominal data which consists of names only- Brand of car; Ordinal data which consists of logical order- Size of T-shirts
What are the two sub types of numerical data?
Discrete data which consists of whole numbers- Number of Ants; Continuous data which consists of decimal values- Length of Jump
What is precision?
How close a group of results are grouped according to each other
What is accuracy?
How close to a target or actual value the results are
What is a random error?
Irregular errors which may be caused by fluctuations in temperature or parallax errors in reading
What is a systematic error?
An error that is always the same when a measurement is taken under the same conditions which may be caused by the scale of an instrument being incorrectly calibrated
What is a personal reading error?
An error that generally occurs due to the carelessness of the observer which may be caused by calculation errors or ineligible scale readings
What does a conclusion state?
A summary of all the findings and addresses all the hypotheses appropriately
