Scientific Views Are Based on Evidence Rather Than an Appeal

question 13

Multiple Choice

Scientific views are based on evidence rather than an appeal to authority. Which of the following statements demonstrates a conclusion based on an appeal to authority?

• A) We conclude that lungs evolved before swim bladders because a study of branching patterns show that some of the oldest lineages of Osteichthyes have lungs.
• B) We conclude that lungs evolved before swim bladders because Darwin wrote that swim bladders evolved before lungs in The Origin of Species.
• C) We conclude that lungs evolved before swim bladders because the oldest osteichthyan fossils show lungs arising before swim bladders.
• D) We conclude that lungs evolved before swim bladders because Hox genes direct the evolution of swim bladders but not of lungs.

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Definitions:

Resistance

In an electrical context, it's the opposition to the flow of electric current; in a broader sense, it could refer to the capacity to withstand something or to not be affected.

Desktop Printers

Compact printers designed for personal or small office use, capable of printing documents, photos, and other materials from desktop or laptop computers.

MST

In computational science, refers to Minimum Spanning Tree, a subset of edges in a weighted graph that connects all vertices with the minimal total edge weight.

MSE

Stands for Mean Squared Error, a measure used to evaluate the difference between the predicted and actual values in statistics and machine learning.