Question

and manipulate being little spheres. We could try to combine these spheres and learn something about how elements combine to form compounds. PRE-LAB For a model such as the particle model of matter to be really useful, it has to offer us more than merely a convenient way of summarizing and accounting for facts we already know; a model must enable us to make predictions that can be tested 1) Here is an example of a very simple model and a prediction we can make from it. Suppose someone hands you a sealed tin can. You shake it and hear and feel something slosh around inside. From the observations obtained from this simple experiment of shaking the can, you form a mental picture a model- of what is inside. You make the inference that the can contains a liquid. You have no idea what color the liquid is or what it tastes or smells like, but you feel sure that it has a property characteristic of liquids - it sloshes around inside a container. From this model you can make the following prediction: If a small hole is punched in the bottom of the can, liquid will drip out. This prediction could obviously be tested. The simple model we have made for the behavior of the tin can was the result of just one experiment, shaking the can, and it led to only one rather obvious prediction. Nothing about the model helped us to understand the liquid itself. But we could do additional experiments to study the properties of the liquid. 2) Suppose that we put our can in a refrigerator and hold the temperature at I°C. After two hours we discover that we can still hear a sloshing sound when we shake the can. We now lower the temperature to -1°C and discover that after two additional hours we no longer hear the sloshing sound Carefully write down the observations made in this experiment. Then describe inferences that you could make from these observations. What predictions could you make? 3) Briefly describe an experiment you might conduct to learn other properties of the substance inside the can.

Answer 1