CHAPTER 1 LESSON 3 & 4

MATH IN SCIENCE + GRAPHS

WHAT ARE SOME MATH SKILLS USED IN SCIENCE?

• SOME MATH SKILLS USED IN SCIENCE WHEN WORKING WITH DATA INCLUDE ESTIMATION, ACCURACY AND PRECISION, AND SIGNIFICANT FIGURES.

• AN ESTIMATE IS AN APPROXIMATION OF A NUMBER BASED ON REASONABLE ASSUMPTIONS.

• AN ESTIMATE IS NOT A GUESS.

• IT IS ALWAYS BASED ON KNOWN INFORMATION.

WHAT ARE SOME MATH SKILLS USED IN SCIENCE?

• ACCURACY REFERS TO HOW CLOSE A MEASUREMENT IS TO THE TRUE ACCEPTED VALUE.

• PRECISION REFERS TO HOW CLOSE A GROUP OF MEASUREMENTS ARE TO EACH OTHER.

ACCURACY VS. PRECISION VIDEO

WHAT ARE SOME MATH SKILLS USED IN SCIENCE?

• THE PRECISION OF A MEASUREMENT DEPENDS ON THE INSTRUMENT YOU USE TO TAKE THE MEASUREMENT.

• SIGNIFICANT FIGURES COMMUNICATE HOW PRECISE MEASUREMENTS ARE.

• WHEN MEASUREMENTS ARE ADDED OR SUBTRACTED, THE ANSWER CAN CONTAIN NO MORE DECIMAL PLACES THAN THE LEAST ACCURATE MEASUREMENT.

• WHEN MEASUREMENTS ARE MULTIPLIED OR DIVIDED, THE ANSWER CAN CONTAIN NO MORE SIGNIFICANT FIGURES THAN THE LEAST ACCURATE MEASUREMENT.

WHAT ARE SOME MATH SKILLS USED IN SCIENCE?

WHAT ARE SOME MATH TOOLS USED IN SCIENCE?

• SOME MATH TOOLS USED IN SCIENCE INCLUDE CALCULATING PERCENT ERROR, FINDING THE MEAN, MEDIAN, MODE, AND RANGE; AND CHECKING THE REASONABLENESS OF DATA.

• PERCENT ERROR CALCULATIONS ARE A WAY TO DETERMINE HOW ACCURATE AN EXPERIMENTAL VALUE IS.

• A LOW PERCENT ERROR MEANS THAT THE RESULT YOU OBTAINED WAS ACCURATE.

• A HIGH PERCENT ERROR MEANS THAT YOUR RESULT WAS NOT ACCURATE.

WHAT ARE SOME MATH TOOLS USED IN SCIENCE?

WHAT ARE SOME MATH TOOLS USED IN SCIENCE?

• THE MEAN IS THE NUMERICAL AVERAGE OF A SET OF DATA.

• THE MEDIAN IS THE MIDDLE NUMBER IN A SET OF DATA.

• THE MODE IS THE NUMBER THAT APPEARS MOST OFTEN IN A LIST OF NUMBERS.

• THE RANGE OF A SET OF DATA IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE GREATEST VALUE AND THE LEAST VALUE IN THE SET.

WHAT ARE SOME MATH TOOLS USED IN SCIENCE?

• DATA THAT DO NOT FIT WITH THE REST OF A DATA SET ARE ANOMALOUS DATA.

• SOMETIMES ASKING WHETHER DATA ARE REASONABLE CAN UNCOVER SOURCES OF ERROR.

• INVESTIGATING THE REASON FOR ANOMALOUS DATA CAN LEAD TO NEW INFORMATION AND DISCOVERIES.

WHAT KINDS OF DATA DO LINE GRAPHS DISPLAY?

• LINE GRAPHS DISPLAY DATA THAT SHOW HOW ONE VARIABLE CHANGES IN RESPONSE TO ANOTHER VARIABLE.

• IN EXPERIMENTS, SCIENTISTS MAKE CHANGES TO ONE VARIABLE, CALLED THE MANIPULATED VARIABLE. THE DATA THEY COLLECT SHOW HOW THE SECOND VARIABLE RESPONDED TO THESE CHANGES. THIS SECOND VARIABLE IS CALLED THE RESPONDING VARIABLE.

WHAT KINDS OF DATA DO LINE GRAPHS DISPLAY?

WHY ARE LINE GRAPHS POWERFUL TOOLS?

• A LINE GRAPH IN WHICH THE DATA POINTS FORM A STRAIGHT LINE IS A LINEAR GRAPH.

• A LINE GRAPH IN WHICH THE DATA POINTS DO NOT FALL ALONG A STRAIGHT LINE IS CALLED A NONLINEAR GRAPH.

• LINE GRAPHS ARE POWERFUL TOOLS ION SCIENCE BECAUSE THEY ALLOW YOU TO IDENTIFY TRENDS AND MAKE PREDICTIONS ABOUT THOSE TRENDS.

WHY ARE LINE GRAPHS POWERFUL TOOLS?