Question

Which of the following is the best example of a hypothesis?

A. I gave each plant 20 mL of fertilizer solution three times per week.
B. Amount of water will be the determining factor in final plant height.
C. Two of the control plants died, and all the experimental plants flourished.
D. All conditions except amount of water were kept the same for all plants.
E. The difference in plant height between groups was statistically significant.

Answer 1

Answer: (B) Amount of water will be the determining factor in final plant height.

Step-by-step explanation:

A hypothesis is essentially an informed prediction of what will happen in an experiment (key word: will).

If you closely observe each of these answers, most of them are in past tense:

(A) I *gave* each plant

(C) Two of the control plants *died*

(E) The difference in plant height between the groups *was*.

When creating a hypothesis, you want to use *will* statements (statements in the future tense) since you are making a prediction.

The only option in the future tense is (B), so it should be the correct response.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

E. The difference in plant height between groups was statistically significant

Step-by-step explanation:

A hypothesis is an assumption that you have before doing any research or experiments to support or disprove your statement.

A doesn't work because it is a statement of fact, not something you can prove or disprove.

B doesn't work because it is also a statement that tells you what is going to happen, not something you prove.

C describes the results of the experiment, which is not a hypothesis

D describes what you will do in the experiment, which is not the hypothesis

Therefore, the answer is E, which is the only statement that you can prove or disprove by doing an experiment and collecting/analyzing data.

Hope this helps!