A student decide to ignore any results that are too far above or below their prediction. He/she repeats their trials until a value closer to their prediction is obtained. What has the student done by doing this?

Answer 1

He has committed a mortal sin , according to the Ten Commandments of Science.

He eliminated any measurements that disagreed with his prediction in order to modify the measurements to fit his prediction.

Just to reiterate MeneerNask, Anor277 said: If the student had no cause to reject the outliering data, the outlier might actually be the true value, and the grouped measurements could be erroneous.

Of course, the measurements might not come from the same population of data; that is, there could have been a cack-handed experimenter taking that specific measurement, problems with the scales or the measuring instrument, a botched measurement, the wrong phase of the moon, or some completely random reason; any of these (possibly not all of them) could be a good reason to reject a specific data point, but not otherwise.

An outlying measurement extends the range and gives the experimenter more confidence that his/her quoted measurement reflects the true value. Furthermore, if someone were paying you to take a measurement, you would want to quote a large enough error measurement, so that the true value, whatever it is, lay somewhere in the range of measurements you quoted. And obviously, the bigger the error measurement, the more likely it is that the true value would fall somewhere in the given range.

Sign up to view the whole answer

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Sign up with email
Answer 2

The student has engaged in a form of bias known as confirmation bias. They are selectively accepting results that align with their initial prediction while disregarding those that do not, thereby seeking confirmation rather than objective evidence. This approach can lead to skewed outcomes and hinder the scientific process.

Sign up to view the whole answer

By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Sign up with email
Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.

Not the question you need?

Drag image here or click to upload

Or press Ctrl + V to paste
Answer Background
HIX Tutor
Solve ANY homework problem with a smart AI
  • 98% accuracy study help
  • Covers math, physics, chemistry, biology, and more
  • Step-by-step, in-depth guides
  • Readily available 24/7