Defining a Hypothesis clearly

A hypothesis is crucial to the scientific process. If you are making a science fair project following the scientific method you will need a well defined and clear hypothesis to test. Here we learn how to take all possible factors into consideration in a hypothesis that you form for your science experiment.

To make a guess you do not need any information at all but to define a hypothesis you need to do some research. Take for instance a simple problem such as how fast will an ice sculpture melt once it has been removed from the freezer. There are a number of factors that you need to consider before you make a guess for the time frame.

First will be the size of the ice involved. A smaller sculpture will melt faster than a larger one. Then you need to consider the temperature in the room that the ice sculpture has been kept. Naturally if the room is air cooled the ice sculpture will last longer than if its a garden party and it has been placed outdoors in the summer.

Another factor to consider is if the ice sculpture is made out of plain tap water or if it has some special chemicals added to it which may delay the melting time involved. You can even consider the effect of the elevation from the sea in your hypothesis. So you can see that clearly defining the hypothesis for your science project is a very important part of a successful experiment.