I need to determine if the following statements are a prediction (P), a hypothesis (H) or an observation (O). Then, I need to determine if they are of inductive or deductive reasoning.

Question

Male Red-winged Blackbirds display red wing patches to signal superiority to other males. - H

Bees make honey. - O

Male Red-winged Blackbirds compete for territories. - O

Bees eat honey when no other food (nectar) is available. - P

A wound is infected. - O

Infection is caused by bacteria. - P

A male Red-winged Blackbird displays his red wing patches whenever other males enter is territory. - H

Honey is the food store for the bee hive. - O

Keeping a wound clean of bacteria prevents infection. - P

I have no clue on how to determine the inductive or deductive reasoning in these examples. I can easily do it with life experiences, but this makes it rough. ANy ideas?

Answer 1

I searched Google under the key words "inductive deductive reasoning" to get these possible sources:

http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/dedind.php
(Broken Link Removed)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_reasoning
http://www.criticalthinking.com/company/articles/inductive-deductive-reasoning.jsp
http://www.christianlogic.com/articles/logic_comes_in_two_flavors.htm

In the future, you can find the information you desire more quickly, if you use appropriate key words to do your own search. You can try it for opinion, hypothesis and prediction.

I hope this helps. Thanks for asking.