Science Basics
What is science?
Science is the investigation and exploration of natural events and the information learned from them.
What is a prediction?
A guess about what will happen next based on a pattern or what you already know.
What is the independent variable?
The variable that the scientist changes.
What is accuracy?
How close a measurement is to the true value.
How many significant figures are in 25.400?
5 significant figures.
What branch of science studies Earth, rocks, oceans, weather, and space?
Earth Science.
What is a hypothesis?
A testable explanation or an educated guess based on research.
What is the dependent variable?
The variable that is measured or observed.
What is precision?
How close repeated measurements are to one another.
Convert 3.5 meters to centimeters.
350 centimeters.
What is the difference between a scientific theory and a scientific law?
A theory explains why or how something happens, while a law describes what happens under certain conditions.
What is an observation?
Information gathered using your senses.
What is a control group?
The group that does not receive the change to the independent variable.
What is the difference between accuracy and precision?
Accuracy is how close a measurement is to the true value. Precision is how close repeated measurements are to each other.
How many significant figures are in 0.00450?
3 significant figures.
What is the difference between a description and an explanation?
A description tells what was observed, while an explanation tells how or why something happened.
What are the seven steps of the scientific inquiry process, in order?
Ask questions, predict, hypothesize, test the hypothesis, analyze results, draw conclusions, and communicate results.
What is a constant, and why is it important in an experiment?
A constant is a factor that is kept the same.
A student measures a pencil as 12.1 cm, 12.1 cm, and 12.2 cm. Are these measurements accurate, precise, both, or neither?
Precise. The measurements are very close to one another, but we don't know if they are accurate because we don't know the true length.
Convert 0.075 kilometers to meters.
75 meters.
What are the three major branches of science?
A student notices that a plant gets taller each day. She predicts that it will continue growing tomorrow. What is her prediction, and what observation led her to make it?
Her prediction is that the plant will continue growing tomorrow. Her observation is that the plant has been getting taller each day.
A scientist wants to know whether fertilizer affects plant growth. She gives different amounts of fertilizer to different plants and measures their height. What is the independent variable, dependent variable, and one possible constant?
Independent variable: amount of fertilizer. Dependent variable: plant height/growth. Constant: something kept the same, such as type of plant, amount of water, sunlight, or soil.
A balance gives measurements of 50.1 g, 50.2 g, and 50.1 g. The true mass is 55.0 g. Are the measurements accurate, precise, both, or neither?
Precise but not accurate.
Convert 4,500 milligrams to grams. If the zeros in 4,500 are not known to be significant, how many significant figures does it have?
4.5 grams; 2 significant figures.