Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I have a question. My son has completed research and experiment for project. His hypothesis is If the type of soap is changed from liquid to bar, then the amount of time the soap will last will increase. After conducting experiment, he found the hypothesis to be true. However he is having trouble displaying information on graph. He measured using ounces for both types of soap. The problem is that his dependent variable to should on the y axis (which is the amount of time the soap will last) but he conducted experiment using ounces. Should he reword hypothesis?

Ok, yes you should definitely change your hypothesis but you still need to include time because you are ultimately trying to show how soap will last a longer time. So the ounces will create a problem. Did you measure the time the soap lasted?






Thanks,
Yasin Rahaman

Hello and welcome to the Science Buddies Forums. Before you change your hypothesis, it would be best if you let us know what it is.

From the posts, it sounds like the data can be graphed two ways. Yasin has suggested, that if you keep the amount of soap constant and measured the amount of time it lasted, your 'y' axis variable would be time. Possibly you kept the time constant and varied the amount of soap needed (ounces)? If that is the case, the 'X' axis would be the type of soap and the 'Y' axis would be ounces, as you suggested.

It may be that the type of graph you need to use is a bar graph, with the X axis (bars) the two types of soap. In general, bar graphs are discouraged for the majority of science projects, but when the data is for discrete types (such as soap in this case), then they are appropriate.

Please let us know if you have more questions. Thanks.
Keith

Keith,
This is the hypothesis: If the type of soap is changed from liquid to bar, then the amount of time the soap will last will increase.
He used a bar graph to display the results. On the "x" axis, he listed the type of soap (liquid and bar). He conducted five trials using both soaps. He started with 1 oz of both soaps and measured how much was remaining after each trial using the same amount each time he washed his hands. The ounces remaining were displayed on the "y" axis. After the trials, the bar soap did not change much from the initial measurement which agrees with the hypothesis that the bar soap will last longer, I'm just not sure if the hypothesis is actually worded correctly.

mdrainey,

My apologies that your reply has not received a reply sooner. The hypothesis that you have stated is a fine one; it was written by a middle school student and so they syntax is a bit odd, but the teacher and science fair judges will recognize that it is the students own work and evaluate accordingly. The hypothesis follows the "If..., then" sentence frame, which is yet another hallmark of a good middle school-level hypothesis.

It sounds like you and your student are doing some great work; let us know how things turn out!