How Are Hypotheses Written?
• Chocolate may cause pimples. • Salt in soil may affect plant growth. • Plant growth may be affected by the color of the light. • Bacterial growth may be affected by temperature. • Ultra violet light may cause skin cancer. • Temperature may cause leaves to change color. All of these are examples of hypotheses because they use the tentative word “may.”. However, their form is not particularly useful. Using the word may does not suggest how you would go about proving it. If these statements had not been written carefully, they may not have even been hypotheses at all. For example, if we say “Trees will change color when it gets cold.” we are making a prediction. Or if we write, “Ultraviolet light causes skin cancer.” could be a conclusion. One way to prevent making such easy mistakes is to formalize the form of the hypothesis.
