What do I do if my experiment do not support my hypothesis?

Question

Okay so recently I just conducted an experiment for my school project. Now, I found that the results don't support my hypothesis. Can anyone tell me what should I do now?

Should I write a new hypothesis, or write the ways in which the results are affected causing my results to be different from the hypothesis?

Answer 1

Well, if you plan on being a real scientist I would redo the experiment a few more times to make sure. If you're just looking for a good grade, rewrite your hypothesis to almost match your results. That way, it looks like you knew roughly what was going to happen but you still learned something new.

Answer 2

If you are using the scientific method

http://www.eas.slu.edu/People/RBHerrmann...

you need to write a new hypothesis and test a new experiment....

if your teacher does not require you to do so I would just explain why your results differed from your original hyphothesis and maybe mention what your new one might be if you were to do it over again.

Answer 3

Just because your results don't support your hypothesis doesn't mean you don't have an answer.

For example:

Hypothesis: The sky is yellow.

Experiment: Go outside and look up.

Result 1: I went outside and the sky was blue.

Result 2: I went outside and the sky was blue.

Result 3: I went outside and the sky was blue.

Conclusion: The sky is not yellow.

Granted, the above example is extremely oversimplified. However, the point of experimentation: you make an observation, you generate a hypothesis based on your observation, you test the observation in one or more ways - multiple times ( = replicates and reproducibility) each way, analyze the result(s) and form a conclusion. The next step would then be to make a new hypothesis based on your previous experiments.

In science, there are no negative results. There may be wrong hypotheses - but that's OK. It is highly unethical to "massage" or "fudge" data just to fit your hypothesis. Just because your result didn't confirm your hypothesis doesn't mean your experiment failed. If I were in your situation, I would re-test (repeat the experiment) if you have the resources and analyze the result. If it is different, I would consider  testing again to verify your result. If it is the same, you can re-test again (I always perform experiments in triplicate) or form a conclusion and from that conclusion make another observation and another hypothesis.

Answer 4

Change your hypothesis.