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Ants alive! It's time for your daily dose of shmoop...

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Put your eyeballs on this passage and accompanying diagrams.

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Hit pause first, 'cause it's gonna go away pretty quick...

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So... what was the purpose of this experiment?

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And here are the potential answers...

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Ants. Ugh. Filthy little creatures. Always climbing all over your PB&J sandwich and getting

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into the crevices of your cherry pie.

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So why have some scientists spent some of their valuable time messing around with these pests?

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What's the purpose?

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Let's start by looking at the data collected.

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What does the graph show? Well, it shows the percent of transported leaves.

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What does that mean though? Well, to find out, we have to take a look at the apparatus.

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Why is the experiment set up like this? Other than because the scientists are sadists who

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enjoy watching ants fall from great heights.

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But falling ants aside, the apparatus is set up so that the ants are forced to get back home...

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...with the transported leaves, from a different path... without pheromones.

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So... can they do it?

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The graph shows that the ants did get the leaves back to their home, so since we know

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that the leaves didn't transport themselves,

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the ants must have figured out how to get back.

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We already know our answer.

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Option A says that the purpose of the experiment is to determine if ants can learn to return

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to their nest by a different route.

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And what do you know? We not only figured out that yes, the experiment was set up to

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see if the ants can return...

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...but we also figured out that they can get back.

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Our answer is A.

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What a touching homecoming. Maybe he'll get a parade.

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