Scientists describe patterns with a sentence that links the two variables: 'As the height of the ramp increases, the distance travelled increases.' Some patterns go the other way: 'As the water temperature increases, the time to dissolve decreases.'
To find the pattern, look down the table from the smallest value of what you changed to the largest. Check whether the measured values go up, go down or stay about the same. If they jump around with no clear order, there may be no pattern, or something went wrong in the test.
Worked example
As cups get more layers of wool, the temperature drop goes 26, 22, 18, 14 °C. Describe the pattern.
- The number of layers increases.
- The temperature drop gets smaller each time.
Answer:As the number of layers increases, the temperature drop decreases.
Key words
- pattern
- a regular link between two things
- increase
- go up
- decrease
- go down
- relationship
- how one variable changes with another
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