General Experiment Information

Main aim of the experiment is to persuade that this new scientific finding is true or almost correct
to people who do not know about the new scientific finding.

The experiment varies between physics, chemistry and biology b/c their types of hypothesis are
different. E.g) Physics tries to find new scientific knowledge, Chemistry tries to find how chemical
reaction occurs or works, Biology tries to find correlation of smoke to cancer or find difference of
obesity disease between people who are fat and people who are skinny.

For experiment in physics,

1. Statement: e.g) Earth is round

A. First, we think of a typical statement and investigate on a statement to find if it is true

or false by assigning a truth/false value.

2. Hypothesis:

A. We make a hypothesis as a question or argument related to the statement and do an

experiment to find truth and false of the statement / scientific knowledge

3. Experiment Method:

A. In undergraduate programme, university provides a guideline of experiment method

to perform an experiment (So, you didn’t need to make a new experiment method in
IB IA)

B. From master programme, you start to make your own experimental method that is
inspired by or modified from various old experiments.

C. Verification method (e.g) Verifying f=ma is true by repeating the experiment that was
done to produce this formula. Repeating this experiment allows us to experience what
previous scientist have been doing/thinking/being curious about and to fully
understand f=ma) has a very strict guideline equally as cookbook. So, do not really
worry about making a new experiment.

4. Uncertainty:
 A. We find uncertainty/error by repeating experiment and find value of SD (Standard
Deviation) and value of percentage difference between accepted value and experiment
value.

B. However, I cannot find whether the value of SD and percentage difference is showing
that my experiment has been done accurately or precisely.

i. E.g) If I got 1 as SD and 20% as percentage difference, one might see the values
as precise and accurate values, and the other might see the values as not precise
and accurate values.

C. Moreover, sometimes we do not find the systematic error or random error that makes
the SD or percentage difference to become so large that is inaccurate and imprecise.

5. Graph:

A. Usage of graph depends on the type of hypothesis or type of experiment

i. Experiment like finding value of plank constant does not really use graph in order
to find it; the experiment will be mainly based on calculations.

ii. Experiment finding trends or patterns like effect of temperature on enzymatic

activity will need graph and graph analysis to find the trend of enzymatic activity
to temperature.

B. Graph is a tool used to make people (who do not know about this experiment) easily
understand the trend, correlation... etc and persuade that my point in this investigation
is right. So, if we do not need a graph to persuade my point, you can remove the
graph section.

6. Conclusion:

A. The problem with conclusion is that there is a vague boundary between data/graph
analysis and conclusion for linking correlation/trend in graph or values of data to
scientific theory or our hypothesis.

i. Therefore, in section of data/graph analysis, you only describe or explain the value
of data or correlation/trend of the graph. Then, you link these to scientific theory
or hypothesis at conclusion.
 B. Sometimes, you find an unexpected result (e.g) trend/correlation) during your
experiment. You will find that trying to find the reason behind this unexpected result
is difficult and sometimes beyond our hypothesis/aim. Then, you can guess the reason
why this unexpected result is produced in your experiment.

i. Your guess can be completely wrong. However, you should not hesitate to make
a guess or suggestion as many scientists have been making wrong guesses in
their experiment and also, the main purpose of experiment is the study on the
nature of science so making a wrong guess is not an incorrect action that you can
take.

7. Evaluation:
A. You talk about value of SD, percentage difference and try to guess why this value has
been make; guess any systematic error or incorrect experiment method that caused
big random errors.