Which of the following are scientific hypotheses?

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around identifying scientific hypotheses from a list of statements related to biology and physics, specifically focusing on chlorophyll's role in grass coloration, the Earth's rotation, and the moon's influence on tides.

Discussion Character

  • Conceptual clarification, Assumption checking

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants explore the nature of scientific hypotheses, questioning whether certain statements can be classified as scientific based on their testability and underlying assumptions.

Discussion Status

There is an ongoing exploration of the statements, with some participants expressing differing views on what constitutes a scientific hypothesis. Guidance has been offered regarding the philosophical implications of certain statements, particularly in relation to hypothesis testing.

Contextual Notes

Participants note the challenge of testing certain hypotheses, such as the moon's effect on tides, and discuss the philosophical aspects of scientific knowledge versus belief.

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1. Which of the following are scientific hypotheses?

(a) Chlorophyll makes grass green.
(b) Earth rotates about its axis because living things need an alternation of light and darkness.
(c) Tides are caused by the moon.



2. Well from science I know Tides are caused by the moon.

Whether chlorophyll makes grass green, on the other hand I don't have a clue I have the internet but in a list of so many things I don't know what to choose.




3. With an under educated guess I would say the correct answer would be B Earth rotates about its axis because living things need an alternation of light and darkness.

Yet I am conflicted in this answer because we know scientifically that every planet rotates with living organisms or not well at least every planet in this solar system.

So in my mind all of these can be hypotheses.
 
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Express Study said:
B is not a scientific hypothesis because it is making a philosophical statement rather than a scientific one. I think it is a fact that chlorophyll makes grass green because we know grass has chlorophyll and we know that chlorophyll is green

I would say c -- because we cannot actually test this hypothesis since we can't remove the moon and see if the tides go away.

If you're taking physics you should check out this great resource with a lot of helpful vidoes:

http://studyroo.com/physicsx/

Enjoy!

Thank you
 
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The more I think about it the more awesome that is, that the moon could or could not be the cause of the tide. Which you are correct we can't remove the moon so how do we know. That is awesome!

at least ancient philosophy wasn't the correlated with ancient science. Perhaps not modern day philosophy? didn't they coexist as one. I like the tidal theory though I agree with you.
 
like this statement I think is a perfect example of philosophy and physics.

Russel wrote. " I think we must retain the belief that scientific knowledge is one of the glories of man. I will not maintain that knowledge can never do harm. I think such general propositions can almost always be refuted by well-chosen examples. What I will Maintain and maintain vigorously is that knowledge is very much more often useful than harmful and that fear of knowledge is very much more often harmful than useful."
 
Express Study said:
B is not a scientific hypothesis because it is making a philosophical statement rather than a scientific one. I think it is a fact that chlorophyll makes grass green because we know grass has chlorophyll and we know that chlorophyll is green

I would say c -- because we cannot actually test this hypothesis since we can't remove the moon and see if the tides go away.
I disagree (if you are saying c is not a scientific hypthesis). While we cannot "remove the moon", we can calculate how, if the moon does cause the tides, the tides would depend on the position of the moon and see if we get results that match observation. I do agree with you about "b".

If you're taking physics you should check out this great resource with a lot of helpful vidoes:

http://studyroo.com/physicsx/

Enjoy!
 
Last edited by a moderator:

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