Question

Which statement do you think is a scientific claim?


Over two-thirds of the class will pass the biology test today because they studied more than one hour for it.


Crushed rosemary and olive oil spread over pimples will draw out the bacteria and prevent scarring according to the star of the number-one teen TV show.


Plants fertilized once per week with Super Plant Food Formula have been shown in testing to produce twice as much fruit as plants that are not.

Answer 1

A scientific claim is one that makes an empirical, testable, and potentially falsifiable statement about the world.

All three sentences meet that definition (they assert observable, testable outcomes), so each is a scientific claim in that sense. However they differ in strength and credibility:

- Over two-thirds of the class will pass... — Testable (measure study time and pass rates); it's a predictive causal claim but would need controlled data to support causation.
- Crushed rosemary and olive oil... — Also testable (measure bacterial counts and scarring outcomes), but the celebrity attribution is an appeal to authority and does not make it more scientific; the mechanism wording is vague.
- Plants fertilized once per week... — The strongest-looking scientific claim here: quantitative and explicitly based on “testing.” It’s directly testable with a controlled experiment and statistical comparison.

If you want one best example, the third is the clearest scientific claim as written.