What is a Hypothesis?

When you get down to working on a science fair project you are encouraged to start using the scientific method. The first part of the scientific method is to form a hypothesis. So what exactly is a hypothesis? Is it just a guess that you make or is there more to it? Let’s take a look.

A hypothesis is considered an educated guess. When you take a guess you have no clue about what you are facing, but when you make an educated guess you can be making a hypothesis. For instance if some one shows you a gift wrapped paper box and asks you what is inside you take a wild guess. If you know the person who is giving the gift and to whom he’s giving it you may be taking an educated guess and may get it right.

So your science fair project can be based on an educated guess such as the one above based on your knowledge of some facts. For instance if you take a cube of ice out of the freezer and place it outside it will melt. That’s a fact, but how soon will it melt? Guessing the time is a hypothesis you make. Will it be 30 minutes or more. How will the temperature of the room delay or speed up the time. You get the idea for a good science experiment with this hypothesis.