What are the major flaws in Matthew's experimental design? What are the strengths of the experimental design? Explain each in detail using terms from the lesson.
This experiment is not able to support Matthew's hypothesis. Suggest specific improvements that will allow the experiment to more effectively test the given hypothesis. Explain why these changes are improvements.

Question

What are the major flaws in Matthew's experimental design? What are the strengths of the experimental design? Explain each in detail using terms from the lesson.
This experiment is not able to support Matthew's hypothesis. Suggest specific improvements that will allow the experiment to more effectively test the given hypothesis. Explain why these changes are improvements.

anonymous · Answer

Matthew notices that if he walks barefoot on blacktop pavement, his feet get much hotter than if he walks barefoot on grass or dirt. He wants to determine if the amount of blacktop pavement in a city will affect the overall temperature of the city. His hypothesis states that because the pavement absorbs heat from the sun, a city with more pavement will have a higher temperature. Matthew uses a map to measure the number of miles of pavement within the limits of his hometown. He then records the temperature outside of his house to see how it varies each day for one week. He asks his friend in the next town to complete a similar experiment. Once the data is collected, he concludes that the hypothesis is not supported.

neonumbrella5115 · Answer

What do you think so far?  Is there a specific part that you need help with?

anonymous · Answer

@neonumbrella5115 I think Matthew's major flaws in the experimental design is the hypothesis

nuttyliaczar · Answer

What's wrong with the hypothesis?

anonymous · Answer

@nuttyliaczar It stated that a city with more pavement would have a higher temperature.

neonumbrella5115 · Answer

In my opinion, that seems like a perfectly logical prediction, and that is one of the strengths of his experiment.

nuttyliaczar · Answer

I agree, the hypothesis makes complete sense to me. It's how he controls his variables that is the problem. He actually doesn't control/measure many at all, except for the amount of pavement per city involved in his experiment. What about number of buildings that could create shadows to stop heating of the pavement? Or the types of buildings there are and what they are made of that could potentially affect the temperature too? Maybe his town is closer to a body of water and his friend's isn't. And did they even measure the temperature at similar times each day compared to each other? Lots of things to consider that he didn't.

anonymous · Answer

@nuttyliaczar Thank you so much. Can you help me with the second problem to this as well?