A conversation about Observation and Inference – Year 7

Year 7 conversation in class about observation and inferences.

Observation: I can hear the sound of water running down the roof gutter…

Inference: At one point in the past nuclear reactions spat out radiation that made its way to earth to heat up some water molecules and caused them to evaporate into the atmosphere where they gathered together with other evaporated water molecules and condensed to form droplets as the temperature decreased reducing their inherent energy.

This coalesced into rain falling on the roof but, due to the chemical insoluble nature of the roof material the water and the electrostatic properties of water molecules, they beaded and rolled into the gutter to join the millions of other water droplets being pulled towards the centre of the earth by gravity taking the path of least resistance.

This causes vibrations to occur which radiate out in 360 degrees some of which are funnelled into your ear causing a thin membrane and tiny bones to vibrate causing movement in your inner ear fluid triggering electrical impulses that are sent to your brain where more neurones fire which we interpret as a particular sound… in this case water running down the gutter.