http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/inference

Generally, we draw an inference when we go beyond stated information by applying our background knowledge. For example, if we learn that John ran a red light and is being treated for injuries at the local hospital, we can reasonably draw an inference that he was injured in an accident.

A prediction is the act of reasoning about the future based on past experience. For example, we can confidently predict that day will follow night.

A hypothesis is a specific kind of prediction. It is “a proposition, or set of propositions, set forth as an explanation for the occurrence of some specified group of phenomena, either asserted merely as a provisional conjecture to guide investigation (working hypothesis) or accepted as highly probable in the light of established facts.”

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hypothesis

Hypotheses are drawn from theories, especially when we want to test one theory against another.

If one theory predicts, say, that learning to walk a balance beam will improve children’s reading (hypothesis 1) and another theory predicts that it won’t make any difference (hypothesis 2), we can construct an experiment to test the hypothesis. We randomly assign some children to balance beam walking and some to another activity (maybe kickball), and after the training, we measure differences in reading.

If this or another answer here proves helpful in your research, you can encourage good answers by choosing one answer as the “best answer.”

Cheers,

Bruce

You look inside a microscope and you see red and blue chips (data 1). Then, you see that the red chips eat the blue chips (data 2). Now, you can INFER that red chips are either predators or viruses that destroy the blue chips.

A prediction and hypothesis are very similar. A prediction is when out of the blue you get a thought and you predict something is going to happen. Example: I predict it is going to rain. Now for a science class it pretty much is the same thing, but this time it labelled a hypothesis. Except, a prediction does not always require experimental observation.

Now a hypothesis is labelled a prediction but really you make a hypothesis after you see observations in your scientific experiment. You are predicting where the results will take you. Thus, if you were going to do a n experiment on lighting and after you see how the light behaves a little bit then do you do your hypothesis: A 100 watt lightbulb from Edison will have better lighting than a 100 watt lightbulb from Epson Light Company.