A chemist mixes sodium with water and witnesses a violent reaction between the metal and water. This is best classified as
a) an observation.
b) a law.
c) a hypothesis.
d) a theory.
Step 1 of 2
* An observation is the chemist process and observes what happens.
* A law summarizes many past observations and predicts a future behaviour.
* A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for an observation. Hypothesis is tested by a number of experiments and new observations are collected.
* A theory explains what happens and why and it explains clearly how things work.