Can Rocks Fall from the Sky? Many Astronomers Resisted the Idea

question 12

Essay

Can rocks fall from the sky? Many astronomers resisted the idea that rocks could fall from the sky until undeniable eyewitness testimony was available. (The tide turned in 1803 when several thousand stone fragments fell to the ground near L'Aigle, France, in the presence of hundreds of witnesses). Suppose that, for whatever reason, no meteorite falls could ever be witnessed. Would it still be possible to make the scientific case that some rocks on the Earth had to have fallen from interplanetary space? How would you make this case?

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Definitions:

Interval Estimate

An assortment of values, from sample statistics, which is envisioned to contain the value of a mysterious population parameter.

Population Mean

The average value of all elements in a complete set of a population.

Population Standard Deviation

A measure of the dispersion or spread of a set of data points in a population dataset.

Confidence Interval

A range of values, derived from sample data, that is likely to contain the value of an unknown population parameter with a certain level of confidence.