01
Choose one
1 point
A researcher explains a neuron’s electrical signaling by describing ion channels and ions, then showing how their coordinated activity changes the cell’s electrical state. Which approach is being used most directly?
Free Practice Quiz Question List
3 Scientific Explanation Online Quiz Questions
Use this free practice quiz with 20 questions to review 3 Scientific Explanation, test your knowledge, and prepare for your next test or exam.
20 questions
02
True or false
1 point
A deductive-nomological explanation may rely only on statistical laws that make an event likely, without deductively guaranteeing it.
- A
True
- B
False
03
Written response
1 point
In covering-law terminology, what is the technical term for the phenomenon that an explanation aims to account for?
04
Fill in the blank
1 point
In covering-law terminology, the laws and relevant conditions that do the explaining are the .
05
Choose one
1 point
A student emphasizes that Newtonian gravitation helps explain both falling objects near Earth and the motion of planets. Which explanatory virtue is the student highlighting?
- A
It uses a separate account for each kind of phenomenon.
- B
It describes the organized parts that produce each event.
- C
It uses one connected framework to explain both the fall of objects near Earth and the motion of planets.
- D
It derives an event’s likelihood without connecting it to other phenomena.
06
Choose all
1 point
Select all claims supported about mechanistic explanations.
- A
They describe organized entities and activities whose interactions produce a phenomenon.
- B
They can help show what might happen if a component were blocked or altered.
- C
Which components are relevant can depend partly on the phenomenon being explained.
- D
They must replace laws rather than work alongside them.
07
True or false
1 point
If a theory unifies many phenomena with a small set of patterns, that fact alone guarantees that the theory is accurate and provides a good explanation.
- A
True
- B
False
08
Written response
1 point
What is the name of the law-based account in which statistical laws and relevant circumstances make an event likely rather than guarantee it?
09
Fill in the blank
1 point
In Kitcher’s influential version of unificationism, a theory gains explanatory power by deriving many accepted claims through a limited collection of .
10
Choose one
1 point
A derivation establishes a law-governed relationship between a flagpole’s height and its shadow length, but gives no basis for deciding which explains the other. What concern does this illustrate about law-based explanation?
- A
A derivation from laws always identifies which variable is causally prior.
- B
A derivation can establish a relationship without identifying whether the pole’s height explains the shadow or the shadow explains the pole.
- C
A law-based account cannot support prediction.
- D
A shadow’s length cannot be related to a pole’s height by a law.
11
Choose all
1 point
Select all statements supported about law-based accounts of scientific explanation.
- A
Law-based accounts can make clear how explanations support prediction.
- B
A deductive-nomological explanation derives the phenomenon from laws and relevant conditions.
- C
A deductive-nomological explanation requires only that the event be made likely, not that it follow deductively.
- D
A related statistical account can make an event likely without guaranteeing it.
12
Choose one
1 point
A scientist uses a general law to describe how components behave and describes their organization to show how they produce an outcome. Which statement best characterizes the relationship between these explanatory approaches?
- A
A law can describe component behavior while a mechanism shows how the components produce the phenomenon.
- B
A mechanism is explanatory only if it replaces every relevant law.
- C
A law-based account and a mechanistic account cannot both apply to one phenomenon.
- D
A mechanism explains a phenomenon only by unifying it with unrelated cases.
13
Open ended
1 point
A student wants to explain a neuron's electrical signaling. Describe how a mechanistic account could explain the process, then explain what law-based and unificationist accounts could add. State how these approaches can relate to one another.
14
Written response
1 point
In a covering-law explanation, what is the technical term for the phenomenon being explained?
15
Written response
1 point
Which law-based account uses statistical laws and relevant circumstances to make an event likely, rather than guarantee it?
16
True or false
1 point
A mechanistic explanation can complement laws by showing how components governed by generalizations produce a particular phenomenon.
- A
True
- B
False
17
Choose one
1 point
A scientist uses a planet's position and velocity together with laws of motion and gravitation to derive features of its orbit. Which account best characterizes this explanation?
- A
It makes the phenomenon likely using statistical laws, without requiring a deductive derivation.
- B
It derives the phenomenon from relevant conditions and general laws, including at least one law of nature.
- C
It identifies organized parts but does not connect them to the phenomenon.
- D
It brings together many phenomena using a small set of patterns, whether or not the account includes laws.
18
Choose one
1 point
Which explanation of a neuron's electrical signaling is mechanistic?
- A
A list of statistical laws that makes the cell's electrical change likely.
- B
A general pattern that links the cell's electrical change to many unrelated phenomena.
- C
An account of ion channels, ions, and their coordinated activity changing the cell's electrical state.
- D
A derivation of the electrical change from a law, without describing the entities involved.
19
Choose one
1 point
A law-based derivation shows a relationship between a flagpole's height and the length of its shadow. What concern does this example illustrate about treating derivation from laws as sufficient for explanation?
- A
The derivation establishes a relationship but does not, by itself, determine whether the pole's height explains the shadow or the shadow explains the pole.
- B
The derivation is invalid because laws cannot relate the height of a pole to its shadow.
- C
The derivation proves that the shadow causes the pole's height.
- D
The derivation is mechanistic because it identifies the organized parts that produce a shadow.
20
Choose one
1 point
What makes Newtonian gravitation a notable example of explanatory unification?
- A
It shows that planetary motion is unrelated to the motion of objects near Earth.
- B
It replaces the need for empirical support with a simpler account.
- C
It explains each phenomenon only by identifying its specific working parts.
- D
It uses one connected framework to explain both the fall of objects near Earth and the motion of planets.