Describe the process of scientific inquiry and explain why it is not a rigid method.

Question

Accepted Answer

Hello everyone welcome back. Let's look at our next problem. It says if all green plants require sunlight for photosynthesis then any green plant placed in the dark would not synthesize glucose, the end product of photosynthesis, this is the best example of and our answer choices are deductive reasoning, Inductive reasoning, qualitative observation or both A and B. So here we're not asked about our knowledge of a particular scientific process. But what kind of reasoning or what kind of thinking is our statement in our problem using? So let's look back at that again. If all green plants require sunlight then any green plant place in the dark would not synthesize glucose. So let's work through our answer choices here we start with choice A deductive reasoning. Well let's recall from our content videos that deductive reasoning is sometimes known as top down reasoning. So starting with a general principle and then applying those general principles to specific circumstances. And we know particularly it says the deductive reasoning is often in the form of if then statements. Well, when we look at our statement in our problem, it indeed says if all green plants require sunlight for photosynthesis, then any green plant placed in the dark. So there we have that if then formulation and indeed we are going from a general principle. All green plants require sunlight for photosynthesis, apply it to a specific circumstance. With that general principle in mind what would happen for a green plant placed in the dark, It would not synthesize glucose. So we're going from general principle to specific circumstance. So choice A deductive reasoning um is going to be correct. However, we note that we do have choice D. Is both A. And B. So we need to evaluate choice B before we can select our answer. So choice B is inductive reasoning. So inductive reasoning we can recall is sort of the opposite of deductive reasoning. It's bottom up reasoning. You start with specific circumstances specific data and formulate general principles from that. So we can see that with them being opposites. You wouldn't expect our answer to be both A and B. And indeed we know that this wasn't an inductive reasoning. We started from a general principle and went to specifics. We did not start with a specific circumstance. So therefore Choice B is incorrect and that means choice D. Is also incorrect. So that's going to say that our answer is going to be choice A deductive reasoning. But to be thorough here we will also just look at choice. See our last remaining choice here which is qualitative observation. A qualitative observation. And we look at this word qualitative is the study of scientific problems by the use of the five senses. That's versus using numerical data which would be called quantitative observation. So you think of quality versus quantity and qualitative observation. You look at the qualities of what you're looking at. So using your five senses observing it and then recording that versus quantitative observation where you'd be using numerical values measuring numerical data. Well this is not a qualitative observation because we're making a reason a deduction from reasoning in our statement here, we're not actually observing the plant in the darkness. It's not describing an experiment where we do that. We are reasoning that any green plant place in the dark would not synthesize glucose. So that's why choice C. Is not our answer. So again, if all green plants require sunlight for photosynthesis, then any green plant place in the dark would not synthesize glucose, the end product of photosynthesis. This is the best example of choice. A deductive reasoning in the next video.

Describe the process of scientific inquiry and explain why it is not a rigid method.

Verified video answer for a similar problem:

Key Concepts

Scientific Inquiry

Hypothesis Testing

Flexibility in Scientific Methods