Killing weeds A biologist would like to determine which of two brands of weed killer, X or Y, is less likely to harm the plants in a garden at the university.

Before spraying near the plants, the biologist decides to conduct an experiment using 24 individual plants.

Which of the following two plans for randomly assigning the treatments should the biologist use? Why?

Plan A: Choose the 12 healthiest-looking plants. Then flip a coin. If it lands heads, apply Brand X weed killer to these plants and Brand Y weed killer to the remaining 12 plants. If it lands tails, do the opposite.

Plan B: Choose 12 of the 24 plants at random. Apply Brand X weed killer to those 12 plants and Brand Y weed killer to the remaining 12 plants.