Writing a Lab Report
Introduction—continued
An experiment must be repeatable. Other people must be able to do the experiment and get the same results.
Once you have made observations, you can come up with a conclusion. A conclusion is a statement about whether the hypothesis is supported or not supported by the data.
It is easier to disprove a hypothesis than to prove one. In fact, in science there are no right answers! Science does not seek to prove anything—another myth dispelled. There simply are hypotheses that are supported by evidence and have not been disproved, and therefore have been accepted by most scientists. Eventually, when several hypotheses about a common phenomenon have not been disproved and have been supported by data over a long period of time, they collectively become a theory.
It is important to keep an open mind about hypotheses because they may have to be rejected or modified, depending on the data recorded during an experiment or observation.
