I then proceed to make further observations that either support or weaken each

hypothesis, discarding hypotheses that are wrong, until I arrive at the most likely
hypothesis.

Now you try!

Write down some simple hypotheses for the following observations.

a) You observe a leaf outside your window floating upwards in the air.
A gust of wind blows it upwards.

Someone is raking leaves and has stirred this one up.

Someone is scattering leaves about and has thrown this one up.

b) You observe a withered plant that appears to be dying.

Someone forgot to water it.

Worms are eating away at its insides.

The fertiliser used was too strong and thus the plant is suffering from dehydration.

Some pest has eaten its roots.

c) You observe no stars in the night sky.

The sky is cloudy and all the stars are covered.

The moon is too bright and overpowers the starlight.

Light from the earth is scattered by dust in the atmosphere so that the scattered light is brighter than

the starlight even without clouds in the sky. (This is generally true in Singapore.)

d) You observe this evening’s sunset to be very red.

The atmosphere is laden with moisture. It is going to rain.

The scientific truth is that blue light has been scattered away from the white light coming from the

sun, so that only red light is left to be seen by the eye. The agents of scattering are dust particles

and water vapour in the atmosphere.

Note to Teacher:
Remind students not to confuse obse
rvations with inferences.
Inferences are something that we ded
uce from observations.

12 Introducing Science © 2008

© 2007 Marshall
Marshall Cavendish
Cavendish International
International (Singapore)
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Ltd