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CHAPTER 1 The World of Physical Science

SECTION

2 Scientific Methods
BEFORE YOU READ
After you read this section, you should be able to answer
these questions:
• What are the steps in scientific methods?
• How do scientists form a hypothesis?
• What do scientists do before telling others about
their experimental results?

What Are Scientific Methods?

Two scientists wanted to find a better way to move STUDY TIP
ships through the water. They thought that studying Outline As you read this sec-
the way penguins swim might give them some ideas tion, make a chart showing
how two scientists used the
about how to improve ships. In this section, you will steps in scientific methods to
learn how these scientists used scientific methods to improve ships.
answer their questions.
Scientific methods are the ways in which scientists
answer questions and solve problems. As scientists look
for answers, they often use the same steps. However,
there is more than one way to use the steps. Look at the
figure below. READING CHECK
This figure shows six steps that are part of most scien- 1. Describe What are
tific methods. Scientists may use all of the steps or just a scientific methods?
few steps during an investigation. They may repeat some
of the steps or do the steps in a different order.
Steps of Scientific Methods

Ask a
Question

Make
Observations Form a
Hypothesis

Analyze Test the

the Results Hypothesis
TAKE A LOOK
Draw Conclusions 2. Identify What is the
No
usual next step after
Do they support
your hypothesis? Communicate analyzing results?
Yes Results

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SECTION 2 Scientific Methods continued

Why Do Scientists Ask Questions?

Asking questions helps scientists focus on the reason for
an investigation. Questions arise at every step of scientific
methods. However, the question that becomes the focus of an
investigation often comes from observation. Observation is
the process of using your senses to collect information.

REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
Two engineers, James Czarnowski and Michael
Triantafyllou, wanted to improve the way ships moved
through the water. An engineer is a scientist who builds
things using scientific knowledge. Czarnowski and
Triantafyllou used scientific methods to improve how
READING CHECK ships move.
3. Describe What is an The two engineers studied how the propellers on ships
engineer? work. They found that ships use a lot of fuel to push
themselves through the water. They asked the question,
“How can we make ships move faster with less fuel?”
That is, they wanted to improve the efficiency of ships. A
ship that is efficient does not use as much fuel as other
ships to travel the same distance.
The engineers looked to nature to find a way to make
ships more efficient. They observed sea animals to learn
how some of them swim faster than others. The engineers
observed that penguins are very efficient swimmers. Penguins
have stiff bodies, just like ships. However, they are able to
push themselves through the water with ease.
Now, the scientists had a new question. They wanted
to know, “How can we make a ship that moves through
the water more easily?”

TAKE A LOOK
4. Identify How do
penguins use their wings? Penguins use their wings as flippers to “fly” underwater.
As their wings are pulled inward, they push against the
water. This movement pushes the penguins forward.

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SECTION 2 Scientific Methods continued

How Do Scientists Form a Hypothesis?

Once a scientist has made observations and asked a
question, he or she is ready to predict an answer. This
is called forming a hypothesis. A hypothesis (plural,
hypotheses) is a possible explanation for, or guess at, an
answer to a question. READING CHECK
5. Describe What is a
A POSSIBLE ANSWER FROM NATURE hypothesis?
The ship engineers had observed the slow movements
of ships and the fast swimming of penguins. Their obser-
vations led them to form a hypothesis. They guessed, “A
propulsion system that imitates the way a penguin swims
is more efficient than a system that uses propellers.”

ANOTHER WAY TO WORD PREDICTIONS Critical Thinking

Scientists often state their predictions as if-then 6. Explain How does an
statements. For example, the engineers’ prediction if-then statement make it
might have been: “If we use flippers instead of a propeller easier to determine whether
a prediction is true?
to move a boat, then it will be more efficient.” An if-then
statement makes it easier to determine whether your
prediction is true.
The table below gives some examples of if-then
statements.

“If” statement “Then” statement

If car A uses less gasoline than . . . then car A is more efficient
car B during the same trip . . . than car B.

If more force is needed to stop

an object with a large mass than . . . then force is
an object with a small mass . . . needed to stop a large truck than
a compact car.

If a grape and an orange fall at . . . then, when dropped from TAKE A LOOK
the same rate . . . the same height, they will hit the 7. Complete In the table,
ground at time.
complete the “then”
statements.

Why Do Scientists Test a Hypothesis?

All hypotheses must be testable. A scientist tests a
hypothesis by gathering more information or by doing an
experiment. Scientists test a hypothesis to find out if it
answers their question correctly.

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SECTION 2 Scientific Methods continued

CONTROLLED EXPERIMENTS
One way to test a hypothesis is to do a controlled
experiment. Suppose you want to know how much air
will make a basketball bounce highest. You gather 15 bas-
ketballs that are all made by the same company. All the
basketballs are the same size and are made of the same
material. You divide the basketballs into three groups.
You inflate the balls in the first group with the amount
of air that the maker recommends. You put more air in
the balls in the second group. You put less air in the balls
in the third group. Then, you drop each ball from the
same height and measure how high it bounces. This is a
controlled experiment.
A controlled experiment is an experiment in which
only one factor changes at a time. The factor that
changes is called the variable. In your experiment, the
variable was the amount of air in the balls. Everything
READING CHECK else about the balls was the same.
8. Define What is a variable? Doing a controlled experiment allows a scientist to deter-
mine the effects of a variable more easily. Suppose you had
used basketballs that were not all made of the same material.
It would have been harder to determine whether the air or the
material caused some to bounce higher than others.
Sometimes, it is not possible to do a controlled experi-
ment. In these cases, scientists test their hypotheses by
making observations or doing research.

BUILDING A TEST BOAT

The engineers who were trying to design an efficient
boat thought they should test their hypothesis by build-
ing one. They built Proteus, the penguin boat. It had flip-
pers like a penguin so that the scientists could test their
hypothesis about propulsion through the water.

Proteus, 3.4 m long and 50 cm wide, was a specially built

a
boat used to test the “flippers” hypothesis. Proteus has two
flipperlike paddles,
called foils. Both foils
move out and then
in, as the flippers of
a penguin do.

TAKE A LOOK
9. Identify What does
b
Proteus use instead of a Two car batteries
supply energy to
propeller to move through the motors that
drive Proteus’s
the water? flapping foils. c
A computer controls the d
number of times the As the foils flap, they push water
foils flap per second. backward. The water pushes against
the foils to propel the boat forward.

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SECTION 2 Scientific Methods continued

How Did the Scientists Test Proteus?

Instead of using many groups, you can do a controlled
experiment by repeating the test several times. For each
test, you change one factor. That’s what the engineers did
with Proteus.
The engineers took Proteus to the Charles River in
Boston. For each test, they paddled the boat across the
river for the same distance with the same weather. The
variable was the flapping rate of the flippers. READING CHECK
10. Identify What two
factors stayed the same
when Proteus was paddled
across the river?

11. Identify What was the

variable for each trip?

Proteus, the “penguin boat,” was tested in the Charles River in Boston.

The engineers collected data on the speed of the boat

and the amount of energy used to move its flippers. Data
(singular, datum) are pieces of information collected
from experiments. The data recorded for the first trip
were considered the control data. The control data were
compared with the data from all of the other trips. READING CHECK
The experimental part of the test began with the sec- 12. Define What are data?
ond trip. The engineers changed the variable by increas-
ing the flapping rate of the flippers. Then, they recorded
the speed and the energy used during the trip. The engi-
neers made several more experimental trips. Each time,
they set a different flapping rate and collected data on
the energy used and the speed.
When all the data were collected, the engineers
compared the results of the trips. They interpreted
their results to find out which flapping speed used
the least energy. That is, they learned which was the
most efficient.
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SECTION 2 Scientific Methods continued

How Do Scientists Analyze Results?

After scientists collect data, they must analyze it. To
analyze data means to interpret what the data mean. One
way to analyze data is to organize them into tables and
graphs. Tables and graphs make the patterns in the data
READING CHECK easier to see.
13. Describe What does it It’s always a good idea to perform your experiment
mean to analyze data? several times. Repeated tests can tell you whether your
data are accurate. If you get similar results every time,
then you can be more sure that the results are accurate.
If the results support your hypothesis, you know that
your hypothesis is probably correct.

ANALYZING PROTEUS
The engineers collected data about the energy used
and the speed of each trip. They used the data to calcu-
late Proteus’s efficiency. Then, they made a graph of their
data, shown below.
Efficiency

This graph shows the

efficiency of Proteus

Math Focus
when the flippers are
moving at different
14. Analyze Which flapping rates.
rate gave Proteus the highest
efficiency? 0.7 1.2 1.7 2.2
Flaps per second

The scientists also used the data to compare the effi-

ciency of Proteus with the efficiency of a regular boat.
That analysis is shown in the bar graph below.

87%
This graph shows the
Math Focus
70%
efficiency of Proteus
compared with the
15. Compare Which boat
efficiency of a
was more efficient? How propeller-driven boat.
much more efficient was it?

Propeller- Proteus
driven boat

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SECTION 2 Scientific Methods continued

What Are Conclusions?

At the end of the investigation, you must draw a con-
clusion. You do this by looking at your analysis. The
results tell you whether your hypothesis was correct. If
it was, then you can say that your results support your
hypothesis. That is your conclusion.
It’s also possible that you will come to a different conclu-
sion. You may decide that your results do not support your
hypothesis. If so, you can change the procedure, gather more
information, or ask new questions. Whether your hypothesis
is supported or not, the results are always important.

PROTEUS CONCLUSION
The engineers found that penguin propulsion was
more efficient than propeller propulsion. They concluded
that the results supported their hypothesis. READING CHECK
The scientists were able to reach this conclusion 16. Explain Why did the
because they did many tests. They were careful to control engineers think that their
all the factors except the variable. They measured every- hypothesis was correct?
thing accurately. This showed that their results were not
accidental. Their data showed the same relationship many
times. Therefore, their results were probably accurate.
Drawing a conclusion to support your hypothesis usu-
ally leads to more questions. More questions lead to more
investigations. This is how scientific progress continues.

How Do Scientists Share Results?

Other scientists will want to know your results. Some
will want to conduct their own tests based on your results.
There are three ways to communicate the results of your
investigation to them. You can use any or all of them. READING CHECK
17. Identify What are
Method of communicating results Audience
three ways scientists
Write a paper for a scientific journal. scientists and others who communicate the results of
read the journal their investigations?
Give a talk. scientists and others who
attend the talk
Create a Web site. anyone interested in
the work

Sharing your results allows other scientists to continue

your work. Sharing also makes it possible for others to
do your experiments and support your results.

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Section 2 Review
SECTION VOCABULARY
data any pieces of information acquired through observation the process of obtaining informa-
observation or experimentation tion by using the senses
hypothesis a testable idea or explanation that scientific methods a series of steps used to
leads to scientific investigation solve problems

1. Identify Fill in the missing steps in the table.

Steps in Scientific Methods

Form a hypothesis.

Test the hypothesis.

2. Infer A synonym is a word that has the same meaning as another word. What are
two synonyms for hypothesis?

3. Interpret a Graph According to the graph, at what Efficiency of Proteus

flapping rate was Proteus least efficient?

Efficiency

0.7 1.2 1.7 2.2

Flaps per second

4. Define What is a controlled experiment?

5. Describe How can a scientist do a controlled experiment if it is not possible to

use several different groups?

6. Explain How can a scientist test a hypothesis if it is not possible to do a con-

trolled experiment? Give two ways.

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