Question

Parker is testing 2 different types of ant killer in his yard. He purchases Brand A and Brand B from the home improvement store. He applies Brand A in the front yard on Monday and Brand B in the backyard on Saturday. He then compares the ant hills on Sunday and determines that Brand A is more effective than Brand B. Why is his conclusion not valid?

Answer 1

His conclusion wouldn't be valid because he didn't apply them on the same day. So, Brand A if applied first would be ahead of brand B which was applied 5 days later. Hope this helped!

Answer 2

Given scenario is :

Parker applies Brand A in the front yard on Monday and Brand B in the backyard on Saturday.

He compares the ant hills on Sunday and determines that Brand A is more effective than Brand B.

This is not a valid conclusion because brand A had been spread out for 6 days from Monday to Sunday and brand B had been applied for only 1 day.

It is obvious that brand A will have been more effective as it worked for 6 days unlike brand B.

For a valid conclusion, Parker should apply the pesticides on the same day and check the results on the same day.