In the scientific method, a hypothesis is another name for

• A. a proven fact
• B. an observation
• C. an educated guess
• D. a theory

Answer: (C)

In science, a hypothesis is an educated guess—a testable statement about what you expect to happen under certain conditions. It’s built from prior observations and existing knowledge, and it’s designed so you can test it with experiments or measurements. A hypothesis isn’t a proven fact, because facts come from confirmed evidence, and a single hypothesis is just a starting point for investigation. It’s also not an observation, which is raw data or something you notice. And it isn’t a theory, which is a broad, well-supported explanation for a wide range of phenomena developed from many tested hypotheses.

For example, you might hypothesize that increasing sunlight will cause a plant to grow taller. You can design an experiment to test this by growing plants under different light levels and measuring their growth. If results align with your prediction, the hypothesis is supported; if not, you revise it and test again. This iterative, testable nature is what makes a hypothesis a core tool of scientific inquiry.