Question 4 • Statistical Modeling - Content Recovery - Part B
A biology student wanted to determine if using fertilizer would promote plant growth. One hundred plants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: one that used the fertilizer, and one that did not use a fertilizer.Which of the following is a benefit of having replication in the experiment?
Answer
A
Having a large number of plants receiving the treatments will allow for a good comparison of the differences in plant growth between the two groups.
B
Having a large number of plants receiving the treatments will not allow for a good comparison of the differences in plant growth between the two groups.
C
Replication is not needed in this experiment. One plant receiving each type of treatment is enough to determine if the difference in plant growth is due to the fertilizer.
D
Repeating the experiment will allow the student to compare the differences between the plants that received the fertilizer the first time and the plants that received the fertilizer the second time.
Explanation
Replication means using multiple plants in each treatment group. Comparing growth across many fertilized and unfertilized plants gives a more reliable estimate of the difference and makes it less likely that an unusual individual plant determines the result. Therefore, a large number of plants allows a good comparison of growth between the groups.
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