(A) Beyonce is the greatest singer in the world. (B) Clouds are made out of cotton candy. (C) Dogs speak English, by only when they cannot be observed in any way by humans. (D) None of these are scientific hypothesis. ** Please help me I'm stumped, I know that it isn't A or C.
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What they're getting at with this question is the critical issue that a scientific hypothesis is a possible explanation about the world that can be physically tested by various means to see if it's true. Even if the idea "seems nonsensical," like "B," it's a scientifically reasonable question, because you can test it.
B is the correct choice. B is a scientific hypothesis, since it is testable. You can fly up into a cloud, stick out a bucket, and see if it picks up cotton candy. Or you can stick your face out in it, open your mouth, and see if it tastes like cotton candy. Of course, to do it right, if you do all those tests, and can find no supporting evidence for the hypothesis, then it's foolish and improper to just go on, still proposing that couds are made of cotton candy! That's the difference between science and say, religion, or uninformed opinion, where the particular belief continues regardless of any and all actual evidence.
A could only be scientific if there was a universal and strictly agreed-upon, unambiguous set of criteria which would define "greatest singer." Obviously, there's not--musical tastes are highly subjective, culturally diverse, and personal. Therefore A isn't a scientific hypothesis, but rather, a personal opinion.
C isn't scientific, since it's not a testable question--it's equivalent to trying to prove God doesn't exist. The premise makes a logically impossible demand upon the experimenter, since it defines a phenomenon that only exists if there's no way to verify it. There's a great movie that has an example of this kind of logical nonsense--if you haven't seen it yet watch "Mystery Men," a spoof about wannabe, crime-fighting superheroes--one of them is "Invisible Boy," who claims to have the power to go totally invisible--but only if nobody's looking at him!
D is wrong, since B is correct.
B is the correct choice. B is a scientific hypothesis, since it is testable. You can fly up into a cloud, stick out a bucket, and see if it picks up cotton candy. Or you can stick your face out in it, open your mouth, and see if it tastes like cotton candy. Of course, to do it right, if you do all those tests, and can find no supporting evidence for the hypothesis, then it's foolish and improper to just go on, still proposing that couds are made of cotton candy! That's the difference between science and say, religion, or uninformed opinion, where the particular belief continues regardless of any and all actual evidence.
A could only be scientific if there was a universal and strictly agreed-upon, unambiguous set of criteria which would define "greatest singer." Obviously, there's not--musical tastes are highly subjective, culturally diverse, and personal. Therefore A isn't a scientific hypothesis, but rather, a personal opinion.
C isn't scientific, since it's not a testable question--it's equivalent to trying to prove God doesn't exist. The premise makes a logically impossible demand upon the experimenter, since it defines a phenomenon that only exists if there's no way to verify it. There's a great movie that has an example of this kind of logical nonsense--if you haven't seen it yet watch "Mystery Men," a spoof about wannabe, crime-fighting superheroes--one of them is "Invisible Boy," who claims to have the power to go totally invisible--but only if nobody's looking at him!
D is wrong, since B is correct.
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I think its D