The Hypothesis
Introduction
An important step for designing a fair experiment is the hypothesis. A hypothesis is an educated guess that answers a question. You have some information about the world in which you live, and you use what you already know to guess the answer to your question. The hypothesis does not have to be correct—many things can be learned from an incorrect hypothesis
The hypothesis gives the investigation a focus. Once the hypothesis has been created, an experiment is designed to test it. Here’s an example, using the steps from above:
- Question: "Which fertilizer is better for making pea plants grow?"
- Hypothesis "If two fertilizers affect pea plant growth rate differently, then one will be more effective than the other."
- Experiment: Grow five plants in Fertilizer A, five plants in Fertilizer B, and five plants with no fertilizer at all (control group).
