Question

4 – Microwave Miracle Patrick believes that fish that eat food exposed to microwaves will become smarter and would be able to swim through a maze faster. He decides to perform an experiment by placing fish food in a microwave for 20 seconds. He has the fish swim through a maze and records the time it takes for each one to make it to the end. He feeds the special food to 10 fish and gives regular food to 10 others. After 1 week, he has the fish swim through the maze again and records the times for each. What was Patrick’s hypothesis? Which fish are in the control group? What is the independent variable? What is the dependent variable? Look at the results in the charts. What should Patrick’s conclusion be?

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

• What was Patrick’s hypothesis? Fishes that are fed with food exposed to the microwave will become smarter and will swim faster.

• Which fish are in the control group? The ones that feed on regular food

• What is the independent variable? Food exposed to the microwave

• What is the dependent variable? The time fishes spend in swimming through the maze

• What should Patrick’s conclusion be? You will find the results considered in the attached file.

In both groups, Patrick recorded a decrease in the time spent swimming through the maze. In both groups, there were two cases in which the animal increase the swimming time. These cases could be considered as outliers. Although in general, the treated group made it in a shorter time after the treatment, when comparing values before and after Patrick can not find any real difference among groups. His results do not show any difference, hence the speed and the intelligence of the animals is not influenced by the change in food, or if it is, more experimental time is required to record significant differences.