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BUILDING A HYPOTHESIS

After building structures with a 1x1 base, you might have made an observation something like this one:

A two-brick structure with a 1x1 base will STAND when the base is under the middle part of the top brick, and will TOPPLE when it is not.

Was your observation something like this one? Of course, to be specific, we would need to describe the 'middle part'. For a brick with an odd number connector bumps (1x1 or 3x1), the middle part is the one bump furthest from either end of the brick. For a brick with an even number of connector bumps (2x1, 4x1 or 6x1), the middle includes two bumps that are furthest from the ends.

Because we have made alot of observations, we could try and predict how new structures will behave before we actually build them! Using the previous observation, we could say

A two-brick structure with any length base will STAND when part of the base brick is under the middle part of the top brick, and will TOPPLE when it is not.

This statement is now called a hypothesis, the fancy scientific word for a 'guess'. It's not just a guess, however, because we did do some observation before we made the guess, and so we have a good scientific reason to believe this guess might be true.

The next step is to build two-brick structures using a single 2x1 brick as a support. Try to find, observe and record each possible combination. Is the hypothesis true for each of the new structures?

Try using 3x1, 4x1 and 6x1 bricks as a support. Record your structures and results. Is the hypothesis still true for each structure?

On to page 4!