Science Project!!

[deleted-80358]

Ok, I just finished my science project, and it was to find the effect of flour type on the density of muffins. I used all purpose, oat, wheat, and soy flour. My results were that all purpose had the densist muffins. I need to write a report, and it asks me if I did a statistical analysis. Can you tell me what that means? Any links or explanation is great!

[rmarz]

ckitty1 - I don't claim to be a muffin expert, but the kind of documentation you should include in your summary of what I would call "statistical analysis" might include answering the following:

1) Did you control all variables? Describe your process and explain.
2) Were all ingredients the same, and in the same equal measurement or ratios, the only difference being the type of flour used?
3) Were the muffins baked at the same temperature and time, and was the batter of each test muffin measured out in the same size of pan?
4) How did you measure the density of the muffins? Density is the weight per unit of volume. The muffins were probably of different size, did you cut precise and equal size pieces of each sample to measure?
5) What is your hypothesis as to what factors really influence density of the muffin. Some flours may generate more carbon dioxide and "raise" more than others. These would have lower densities.

There are probably more things you could add, basically the experiment should be documented to show how you came to the conclusion as to which was the densest muffin, and was your process accurate and repeatable. Taking more than one sample of each and making the measurement might reduce variability. That could be a statistical element of your experiment.

Rick Marz

[deleted-80358]

Thank you soo much! This helped me greatly