Question

A nutrition experimenter intends to compare the weight gain of newly weaned male rats fed Diet A with that of rats fed Diet B.

To do this, she will feed each diet to 10 rats. She has available 10 rats from one litter and 10 rats from a second litter. Rats in the first litter appear to be slightly healthier.

If the 10 rats from Litter 1 were fed Diet A, what problem would this create for the experiment?

A) Genetics and weight gain would be confounded.

B) Genetics and type of diet would be confounded.

C)Genetics and the gender of the rats would be confounded.

D)The age of the rats and type of diet would be confounded.

E)Type of diet and weight gain would be confounded.

Answer 1

Feeding all rats from Litter 1 the same diet would confound genetics with diet type, making it impossible to distinguish the effects of the diet from the effects of genetic variation.

Step-by-step explanation:

If the 10 rats from Litter 1 were fed Diet A, the problem created for the experiment would be B) Genetics and type of diet would be confounded. This means that any observed differences in weight gain could not be attributed solely to the diet because the genetic makeup of the rats from the healthier first litter could play a significant role. To ensure reliable results, experimenters should randomly assign individuals from both litters to each diet, preventing any one variable from being intertwined with another and affecting the outcome of the nutritional experiment.