Case Study: The Minneapolis Bridge Failure

When the 35W Bridge collapsed, investigators used Scientific Inquiry to find out why the bridge had failed. Put the following steps of inquiry in the correct order that investigators used.

1. Ask questions. 2. Gather information and data(researching) 3. Hypothesis 4. Analyzing results 5. Revision of Hypothesis (modification) 6.Testing 7. Communication of Results.

variable

Any factor that can more then one value

What was the first hypothesis investigators came up with for the I 35 Bridge collapse?

Due to construction on the bridge, the bridge was overloaded and had too much weight on it

control group

This contains the same factors as the experimental group, but the independent variable isn't changed.

experimental group

This is used to study how a change in the independent variable changes the dependent variable.

quantitative data

Using numbers to describe what is observes in an experiment.

qualitative data

Using words to describe what is observe in an experiment.

Constants are necessary in a controlled experiment because, without constants, you would not know which variable affected this group.

dependent variable

dependent variable

The factor that you observe or measure during an experiment.

independent variable

The factor that you want to test.

constant

The factors in an experiment that do not change.

What was the final reason for the bridge collapse?

The gusset plates failed.