You’ve noticed your friend Bob seems to win at scratcher lottery tickets a lot, but you do not. You think it is because he buys one every day whereas you only buy one once a month. What part of the scientific method are you engaging in in the above scenario? Group of answer choices
A Making an observation.
B Drawing a conclusion.
C Forming a hypothesis.
D Developing a test.
The correct answer and explanation is:
The correct answer is C. Forming a hypothesis.
In this scenario, you are proposing an explanation or assumption for why Bob wins more often than you do when it comes to scratcher lottery tickets. Specifically, you are hypothesizing that the frequency of buying tickets could be the reason behind the difference in outcomes. This is the stage where you come up with a possible explanation that can later be tested.
Forming a hypothesis is a critical step in the scientific method. A hypothesis is a tentative statement or prediction that can be tested through experiments or observations. In this case, the hypothesis is that Bob wins more often because he buys tickets daily, while you buy them only once a month. This hypothesis presents a cause-and-effect relationship: more frequent ticket purchases (the cause) might lead to more wins (the effect).
Once the hypothesis is established, you would need to conduct further testing to verify or disprove it. This would involve gathering data or running experiments to determine if buying tickets daily actually leads to more frequent wins, or if other factors might be influencing the outcomes, such as the number of tickets bought, the specific scratchers being purchased, or the randomness of the lottery itself.
Hypotheses are often formulated based on prior observations, like noticing that Bob wins frequently and wondering if his behavior plays a role. The next step after forming a hypothesis would be to test it, which could involve comparing your ticket-buying habits and win rates with Bob’s or conducting a controlled experiment.