Blog 1: What is a hypothesis?

              I think a hypothesis is an idea or prediction that one has about a certain topic and is to be followed up by an experiment, whether the hypothesis is supported by data or not. With that said, hypotheses do not have to be “correct” whatsoever. They should be made before performing the experiment, so after reading what you’ll be doing in the experiment and what you’re trying to conclude from it, ask yourself “What do I think will happen?” Not only are there are times when you have a “because” reason but also experiments where you don’t know exactly why you do or don’t think something will happen in the experiment. Furthermore, something that I think is cool about hypotheses is that your prediction could be totally different than what your experiment’s results are. On the other hand, they could also be similar to. Either way, analyzing the data and looking at your hypothesis is one of the best ways to learn, in my opinion. You create questions for yourself as well as answers.

An example of an experiment that I want to execute soon is whether or not ice forms faster if the initial temperature of the water is ice cold, room temperature, or hot (over 100 degrees Fahrenheit). My hypothesis is that the hot water will form into ice faster because the molecules move much faster at a higher heat, so they will come together more quickly to form a solid. I would perform this experiment using ice cube trays and testing the different temperatures of water and the time it takes them to turn into ice. Then I would look at my data and write up a conclusion, discussing whether or not my data supports my hypothesis. If it doesn’t, I would like to perform another experiment that could help answer why.