SCI 110 California College San Diego Scientific Research Multiple Choice Questions

1) A scientist doing an experiment takes repeated measurements with a poorly madeor broken
instrument. The results all come out about the same, but all are far from the true
value. These
results are:
(a) imprecise
(b) inaccurate
(c) invaluable
(d) irreproducible
2) In performing scientific research, the variables the scientist can control
independently are
called the:
(a) control variables
(b) dependent variables
(c) independent variables
(d) observed variables
3) An observed regularity in nature, a statement of observed natural phenomena
where no exceptions are known under the given conditions, is called a(n):
(a) hypothesis
(b) law
(c) observation
(d) theory
4) When Isaac Newton saw an apple fall from a tree, he (according to tradition)
concluded that
all masses everywhere attract each other. This is an example of:
(a) a hypothesis
(b) deductive reasoning
(c) inductive reasoning
(d) an observation
5) A scientific statement of the form “if this … then that …” is called a(n)
(a) conclusion
(b) hypothesis
(c) law
(d) theory
6) Scientific explanations that invoke space aliens or the supernatural are not valid
parts of the
scientific method because they are not:
(a) actionable
(b) falsifiable
(c) testable
(d) all of the above
7) For over 1500 years, all scientific knowledge was dictated by the church based on
the ancient
writings of:
(a) Roger Bacon
(b) Copernicus
(c) Aristotle
(d) Galileo
8) What statement might a reputable scientist make:
(a) Creationism (a literal interpretation of the Bible) is not true.
(b) Extensive evidence indicates that continents drift.
(c) The theory of evolution has been shown to be a fact.
(d) We now know the big bang happened about 13.7 billion years ago.
9) The concept of scientific parsimony – among competing theories, the simplest one,
with
fewest assumptions should be selected – is attributed to:
(a) Aristotle
(b) Roger Bacon
(c) William of Ockham
(d) Your instructor
10) Early thinkers, from the ancient Greeks until the Middle Ages, were focused on:
(a) deductive reasoning
(b) inductive reasoning
(c) both deductive and inductive reasoning
(d) reductive reasoning
11) The thinker often referred to as the “first scientist” refers to:
(a) Aristotle
(b) Roger Bacon
(c) Isaac Newton
(d) Your instructor
12) The three laws of planetary motion were discovered by:
(a) Tycho Brahe
(b) Nikolai Copernicus
(c) Johannes Kepler
(d) Isaac Newton
13) The first prominent scientist to define and advocate a scientific method was:
(a) Francis Bacon
(b) Roger Bacon
(c) Rene Descartes
(d) Isaac Newton
14) The first scientist to use a telescope to study the heavens (and was almost
tortured to death
for it) was:
(a) Tycho Brahe
(b) Nikolai Copernicus
(c) Galileo
(d) Johannes Kepler
15) Science assumes all of the following except:
(a) There exists a single, unchanging set of theories and laws which govern all events
in the
physical universe
(b) Human beings are able to understand workings of the physical universe.
(c) The theories and laws which govern the universe are fully describable, in
principle.
(d) The physical universe conforms to human intuition.
16) The first scientist to insist on quantitative measurements of chemical and
molecular
properties, and who developed the law of conservation of mass and the metric
system, was:
(a) Francis Bacon
(b) Robert Boyle
(c) Antoine Lavoisier
(d) Anthony Leeuwenhoek
17) The scientist sometimes referred to as “the greatest experimentalist who ever
lived” due to
his pioneering experiments (however with no mathematics) in electricity and
magnetism was:
(a) Francis Bacon
(b) Michael Faraday
(c) Robert Hooke
(d) Isaac Newton
18) The theorist who developed an equation to explain the structure of all matter on
an atomic
scale, which allows one to calculate the probability distribution of finding an
electron’s location
in space, and thus launched modern quantum mechanics, was:
(a) Niels Bohr
(b) Robert Boyle
(c) Max Planck
(d) Erwin Schödinger
19) The “father of bacteriology” refers to:
(a) William Harvey
(b) Anthony Leeuwenhoek
(c) Carl Linnaeus
(d) Louis Pasteur
20) The scientist who proposed the three mathematical equations of all motion (and
invented
calculus in order to implement them) was:
(a) Francis Bacon
(b) Robert Boyle
(c) Albert Einstein
(d) Isaac Newton
21) Doing science by “thought experiments” is associated with:
(a) Albert Einstein
(b) Niels Bohr
(c) Madam Curie
(d) Erwin Schrödinger
22) Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is strongly supported by:
(a) the fossil record
(b) observed changes in living things with changes in environment
(c) modern discoveries in genomics
(d) all of the above
23) The development of which of the following did not represent a recent paradigm
shift in
science?:
(a) evolution by natural selection
(b) the geocentric theory
(c) the theory of relativity
(d) quantum mechanics
24) The statement “all substances are composed of atoms” is an example of a(n):
(a) hypothesis
(b) law
(c) observation
(d) theory
25) The modern system of taxonomy for naming all living organisms was developed
by:
(a) Henry Cavendish
(b) Charles Darwin
(c) Carl Linnaeus
(d) your instructor