Guided Practice: Hypothesizing in Science–Part B

Write a scientific hypothesis for the scenarios in questions 4 and 5.

4.

An airport maintenance crew wants to know if salt spread on a runway will reduce ice and snow buildup and prevent skidding when an aircraft lands. Workers spread 100 kg of salt on a runway and use test equipment to simulate a landing. They repeat the test on a runway that has not had salt applied to it. Answer If salt spread on a runway limits ice and snow buildup, then an aircraft should experience different amounts of skidding when landing on a salted runway compared with an unsalted runway.

5.

For her Science Fair project, Deirdre is investigating whether or not different scents travel at the same speed. To test this, she asks three friends to be her test subjects. The three subjects stand at the opposite side of the room. First she sprays a can of scented hair spray into the air and records the length of time it takes for each subject to detect the scent. After the room is aired out, she repeats the test by spraying peppermint air freshener. Answer If different scents travel at the same speed, then the test subjects will take the same amount of time to begin smelling each scent.

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