Study Guide: Nature of Science/Scientific Methods

What type of graph is represented by Figure 1-1?

B. a line graph

What is a system of knowledge and the methods used to find that knowledge?

A. Science.

How are science and technology related?

C. Advances in science may lead to advances in technology and vice versa

Which of the following is NOT a branch of natural science?

D. Social Science

How does Earth science overlap with life science?

B. Earth science involves the study of systems that may include living organisms

Which of the following is NOT one of the main ideas of physical science?

D. One of the main branches of natural science is biology.

What are the building blocks of all matter?

B. Atoms.

In which step of the scientific method is information obtained through the senses?

b. Making observations

What happens when the data in an investigation do not support the original hypothesis?

c. The hypothesis is revised.

What is a statement that summarizes a pattern found in nature?

A. A scientific law

Which of the following statements is true about scientific theories?

B. Scientific theories are never proven.

What is a physical or mental representation of an object or an event?

C. A model.

Why are scientific models important?

B. They help visualize things that are very complex, very large, or very small.

What is the most important safety rule?

C. Always follow your teacher's instructions and textbook directions exactly.

Which of the following is an example of a safe laboratory procedure?

A. Tying back long hair and loose clothing

How is 0.00069 written in scientific notation?

D. 6.9 x 10^-4

Which of the following conversion factors would you use to change 18 kilometers to meters?

A. 1000 m/1 km

What are 6 centimeters equal to?

C. 60 millimeters

There are 1660 megawatts of wind-generated electricity produced globally every year. This amount is equivalent to

B. 1,660,000 kilowatts.

Timers at a swim meet used four different clocks to time an event. Which recorded time is the most precise?

D. 55.254 s

Which of the following clocks offers the most precision?

D. A clock with a hand to measure the hour, a hand to measure the minutes, and a hand to measure the seconds.

On the Celsius scale, at what temperature does water boil?

C. 100 degrees.

Approximately how many kelvins are equal to 60F?

D. 289.

The type of graph used to show how a part of something relates to the whole is which of the following?

A. Circle Graph.

What is the relationship in which the ratio of the manipulated variable and the responding variable is constant?

B. Direct proportion.

How do scientists communicate the results of investigations?

D. All of the above.

How do scientists who speak different languages make their data understandable to one another?

B. They all use SI.

What is a peer review?

B. A process in which scientists examine other scientists' work

Why are peer reviews important?

D. All of the above.

If the relationship between the manipulated variable and the responding variable is a direct proportion, what will a line graph of this relationship look like?

A. a straight line.

The two main branches of science are

B. physics and chemistry

Which of the following is not a branch of biology?

A. geology

The main branches of natural science are

D. life, physical, and earth science

Technology can best be defined as

C. Applied science.

Pure science is best defined as the

A. Continuing search for new knowledge

What do scientists who do pure science do?

C. They do experiments to find out about the world

A scientific theory is an explanation that

C. has been tested by many observations.

For a scientific theory to be valid, it must allow you to

D. Make predictions.

A scientific model is a

A. representation of a real event or object.

Scientific theories can be changed or replaced when

B. new discoveries are made.

Scientists use computer models to study complicated events and to

D. make predictions.

A series of logical steps that is followed in order to solve a problem is called the

C. scientific method.

The first step in the scientific method is usually

A. making an observation.

Scientists test a hypothesis by

c. doing experiments

What does it mean to say that "no experiment is a failure"?

A. All experiments are observations of real events.

Which instrument has been used to detect the oldest, most distant objects in the solar system?

d. Radio telescope

Which question cannot be answered by an experiment?

C. Did a comet impact kill the dinosaurs?

The SI unit for measuring temperature is the

B. Kelvin

Which SI prefix means one million?

b. mega

Which SI prefix means one one-hundredth ( l/ 100)?

D. centi-

Maria is 123 centimeters tall. Her height in meters is

C. 1.23m

A loaf of bread weighs 1362 g. The weight in kilograms is

A. 1.362 kg

The force with which gravity pulls on a quantity of matter is referred to as

D. Weight

At which time of day was the temperature approximately 5C?

b. 10:00 A.M.

At which two times of day was the temperature the same?

D. 10:00 A.M. and 10:00 P.M.

The sample contained the same number of pennies for which two years?

C. 1994 and 1997.

For which year was the smallest number of pennies found?

D. 1991

The decimal equivalent of 10^-2 is

D. 0.01.

What is 78,900,000,000 expressed in scientific notation?

C. 7.89 x 10^10

The speed of light is approximately 3 x 10^8 m/s. How would this be written in conventional notation?

D. 300,000,000 m/s

You are asked to find the area of a room that is 4.56 m long and 5.668 m wide. How many significant figures should you show in your answer?

A. 3

You are asked to find the volume of a cube that is 2.5 cm high, 2.65 cm wide, and 3.456 cm long. How many significant figures should you show in your answer?

B. 2

What is the area of a room that is 4 x 10^2 cm long and 2 x 10^3 cm wide?

C. 8 x 10^5 cm^2

A precise measurement is one that

D. is as exact as possible.

A measurement that is accurate is one that

B. is close to the true value.

375 cm equals ____________________ m.

3.75 meters

5675 g equals ____________________ kg.

5.67 kg

In scientific notation, the number 46,500,000 would be written _____

4.65 × 10^7

The number 0.0009234 would be written in scientific notation as

9.234 × 10^-4

The number 56,780,000,000 would be written in scientific notation as

5.678 × 10^10