Homework 1 (Ch. 1-2)
1. Make five qualitative and five quantitative observations about the room in which you now sit.
2. Describe how you would set up an experiment to test the relationship between completion of
assigned homework and the final grade you receive in the course.
3. As part of a science project, you study traffic patterns in your city at an intersection in the
middle of downtown. You set up a device that counts the cars passing through this
intersection for a 24-hour period during a weekday. The graph of hourly traffic looks like this.
60
50
40
30
20
0
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
12:00
AM
1:00
AM
2:00
AM
3:00
AM
4:00
AM
5:00
AM
6:00
AM
7:00
AM
8:00
AM
9:00
AM
10:00
AM
11:00
AM
12:00
PM
1:00
PM
2:00
PM
3:00
PM
4:00
PM
5:00
PM
6:00
PM
7:00
PM
8:00
PM
9:00
PM
10:00
PM
11:00
PM
10
At what time(s) does the highest number of cars pass through the intersection?
At what time(s) does the lowest number of cars pass through the intersection?
Briefly describe the trend in numbers of cars over the course of the day.
Provide a hypothesis explaining the trend in numbers of cars over the course of the day.
Provide a possible experiment that could test your hypothesis.
4. Although, in general, science has advanced our standard of living tremendously, there is
sometimes a “dark side” to science. Give an example of the misuse of science and explain
how this has had an adverse effect on our lives.
5. Consider the addition of “15.4” to “28”. What would a mathematician say the answer is?
What would a scientist say? Justify the scientist’s answer, not merely citing the rule, but
explaining it.
6. Consider multiplying “26.2” by “16.43”. What would a mathematician say the...