The Following Paragraph Describes the Activities of Hypothetical Scientists

question 38

Essay

The following paragraph describes the activities of hypothetical scientists.After reading this paragraph,list the steps of the scientific method,and list the activities that correspond to the steps of the scientific method.
A rancher noticed that several grazing animals had become sick after grazing in a new area.The rancher asked a team of scientists to analyze this problem.They visited the area and found that the food available to the animals was similar to the food they had been eating.The water supply in the area was adequate but limited to a single spring.Some of the scientists felt that the water might be contaminated with a pathogen.Therefore,they collected water samples from the spring in the new area and compared them with water samples taken from previous grazing sites.The scientists noticed that water from the new area was cloudier than water obtained from other areas.Culturing this water revealed that a pathogenic strain of bacteria was present.This bacterial strain was found to be identical to a strain obtained from sick animals.This strain was not present in healthy animals.They concluded that a contaminated water supply in the new area was responsible for the problem and instructed the rancher to avoid the water supply.The disease was not found in the rancher's livestock again.

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Definitions:

Chi-square Statistic

A measure used in statistics that compares observed frequencies with expected frequencies to determine if there are significant differences.

Critical Value

A threshold value that delineates the boundary of the rejection region in statistical hypothesis testing.

Degrees Of Freedom

The number of independent values or quantities that can be assigned to a statistical distribution, impacting the calculation of a test statistic.

Expected Frequency

The theoretical frequency of an event or outcome calculated under a specific hypothesis for comparison with observed frequencies.