For a final project in Seon’s physics class, students were instructed to build a water balloon launcher, write a hypothesis, and then carry out an experiment with the launcher. Considering that 90 degrees means launching the balloon straight up into the air and 0 degrees means launching it straight along the ground, Seon first wrote the hypothesis below.

If the angle at which the balloon is launched decreases from 90 degrees, then the distance that the balloon goes along the ground will increase, because more energy will go into pushing the balloon forward than upward.

Seon found that this was true until the angle reached about 45 degrees, and then the distance along the ground began to decrease again. Seon knows that he will need to write a new explanation, but he would like to conduct an experiment that is based on his original hypothesis, with one of the variables changed.

How could Seon rewrite his hypothesis to be a statement that will more likely be supported?

a. change the independent variable to “If the angle at which the balloon is launched increases up to 90 degrees . . .”

b. change the dependent variable to “If the angle at which the balloon is launched moves closer to 45 degrees . . .”

c. change the independent variable to “If the angle at which the balloon is launched moves closer to 45 degrees . . .”

d. change the dependent variable to “If the angle at which the balloon is launched increases to 90 degrees. . .”