Medieval Science Lab Report

Gene Choi
BIOS 101
By Wednesday 3 P.M.
TA: Michelle Lamont
Medieval Science Lab Report
 Introduction
Medieval and early renaissance scholars believed in three scientific paradigms: alchemy, astrology, and folk belief. These three scientific paradigms are produced without extremely thorough testing, yet they still can produce accurate predictions. This means that the medieval science not only allowed beginning with scientific method, but also beginning with superstition and theories. One of the three scientific paradigms, astrology is the study of how consequences on earth correspond to the positions and movements of astronomical bodies. Observing the positions of these bodies at the moment of one’s birth, astrologers believe that the positions
reflect the person’s future characteristics. (Tesch 1). Alchemy is a superstitious scientific point of view that believes it is possible to change ordinary metals into pure gold.
(Ward 2). Folk beliefs may result from religion, superstition, or commonly held ideas that persist in cultures by being transmitted by word of mouth (Molumby and
Murray 29).
This lab consists of two different experiments to experiment astrology and psychic precognition. To test astrology and its validity, students must read eight different stories of a person’s day and try to match the paragraphs with one of the eight horoscopes by trying to perceive the stories and matching it with one of the horoscopes.. To test psychic precognition, the ability to predict the future, students were in groups of at least two and one of the students in the group were trying to use their psychic powers to read the card without cheating.

In the lab, the students used the “null hypothesis” – a hypothesis which states that there is no significant difference between two measured phenomena. (Huck 58). The null hypothesis of the psychic precognition experiment was that none of the students had any psychic ability. The null hypothesis for astrology was that there wasn’t any correlation between the events of a person’s day and their horoscope for that day. For both null hypothesis, if the paradigms were scientifically valid, the departure would be expected to be larger than
0.05
(Molumby and Murray 260). The prediction of one being correct in predicting the shape of a random card was 20 percent. There were five different possible outcomes in shapes and one of the shapes was the correct prediction. Also for astrology, the expected prediction was 12.5 percent because there were 8 choices and only one of them were correct. The predictions may be logically correct, but the exact result may vary.
 Method
(Psychic Cards)
1. Two or more students are grouped with a deck of 25 cards. The cards have 5 different designs: triangle, circle, rectangle, three horizontally dashed lines, and three vertically dashed lines with curved ends.
2. One of the students predicts his or her outcome in terms of correct or incorrect.
3. The student makes predictions to each of the 25 cards in the deck.
4. Another student records the predictions in terms of correct or incorrect.
(Horoscopes)
1. Each student must read 8 different stories of a person’s day.
2. Read the 8 different types of horoscopes.
3. Try to match the stories with the horoscopes in terms of its definition.
4. Gather the data as a class as correct or incorrect.

 Results
To determine the degree of freedom, subtract 1 from the number of possible outcomes.
For example, if one’s tongue can become blue, red, or green, subtract 3 and 1 because there are three possible outcomes and subtract one from it to find the degree of freedom. For both experiments, the probability was 0.05 and the degree of freedom was not affected by the p value. Therefore, 3.84 were used as the critical value for both experiments. Chi-square value for psychic card experiment was 1 with 5 expected correct and 20 expected incorrect. The psychic card experiment needs to accept the null hypothesis because the Chi-square value is smaller than the critical value (1<3.84). The
Chi-square value for horoscope experiment was 2.229 as a whole class with 28 expected accurate and 196 expected inaccurate and 19 observed accurate and 205 observed inaccurate. The horoscope experiment needs to accept the null hypothesis because the
Chi-square value is also smaller than the critical value.
(Psychic Cards)
Expected
Observed
Correct: 5
Incorrect: 20
Correct: 7
Incorrect: 18 incorrect correct incorrect correct

Degree of freedom = 2-1 = 1
Probability = 0.05
Critical value = 3.84
Chi- square value = 1
Chi square value 1 < Critical value 3.84
(Horoscopes)
Expected
Observed
Degree of freedom= 2-1 = 1
Probability = 0.05
Critical value = 3.84
Chi-square value = 2.229
Chi-square value 2.229 < Critical value 3.84
Expected accurate: 28
Expected inaccurate: 196 observed accurate: 19 observed inaccurate: 205
Accurate
Inaccurate
Accurate
Inaccurate

 Discussion
For both experiments, the null hypotheses are confirmed because the Chi-square values were smaller than the critical value. Psychic card result showed that none of the students in the class had the ability to predict the future. Even though the results proved that only the students had no psychic powers, with further research, No other student or person will have psychic powers to be able to predict the shapes of the cards or the future. The horoscope result shows that there isn’t a correspondence between the events of a person’s day and their horoscope for that day.
Furthermore, counting on the position of these bodies at the exact moment of a person’s birth is not accurate.
There is no way in fate that one’s horoscopes would match how its day was.
The possibilities of errors in these experiments would be the value of the experimenter’s expected correct/incorrect and the result may vary depending on the experimenter. For example, luck may be on his or her side by chance and someone may completely guess all the shapes correct without cheating or someone could have guessed the horoscopes correctly with a person’s day.
None of us had psychic ability. There could have possibly been a slight chance that one of us might be able to guess or even feel the correct shapes in the cards. To have a better understanding about this topic one could further experiment by flipping a coin and figuring out the expected head/tail and observed head/tail.
 Reference
1. Molumby, Alan and Murray, Darrel L. Adventures in Populations and Communities.
2011.
2. Tesch, Nicki. The Mystery of Astrology. Unknown.
3. Ward, Dan Sewell. Alchemy. Library of Ialexandria. 15 November, 2010.
4. Huck, Schuyler W. Statistical Misconceptions. CRC Press. 3 November,
2008.