What are Independent and Dependent Variables?
Question: What's a variable?
Answer: A variable is an object, event, idea, feeling, time period, or any other type of category you are trying to measure. There are two types of variables-independent and dependent.
Question: What's an independent variable?
Answer: An independent variable is exactly what it sounds like. It is a variable that stands alone and isn't changed by the other variables you are trying to measure.
For example, someone's age might be an independent variable. Other factors (such as what they eat, how much they go to school, how much television they watch) aren't going to change a person's age. In fact, when you are looking for some kind of relationship between variables you are trying to see if the independent variable causes some kind of change in the other variables, or dependent variables.
Question: What's a dependent variable?
Answer: Just like an independent variable, a dependent variable is exactly what it sounds like. It is something that depends on other factors.
For example, a test score could be a dependent variable because it could change depending on several factors such as how much you studied, how much sleep you got the night before you took the test, or even how hungry you were when you took it. Usually when you are looking for a relationship between two things you are trying to find out what makes the dependent variable change the way it does.
Many people have trouble remembering which one the independent variable verses which one is the dependent variable.
An easy way to remember is to insert the names of the two variables you are using in this sentence in way that makes the most sense to you. Then you can figure out which is the independent variable and which is the dependent variable:
(Independent variable) causes a change in (Dependent Variable) and it isn't possible that (Dependent Variable) could cause a change in (Independent Variable).
For example:
(Time Spent Studying) causes a change in (Test Score) and it isn't possible that (Test Score) could cause a change in (Time Spent Studying).
We see that "Time Spent Studying" must be the independent variable and "Test Score" must be the dependent variable because the sentence doesn't make sense the other way around.
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Variables:
A variable is what is measured or manipulated in an experiment. Variables provide the means by which scientists structure their observations. Identifying the variables in an experiment provides a solid understanding of the experiment and what the key findings in the experiment are going to be.
To identify the variables, read the lab procedure described in the lab manual. Determine what you will be measuring and what you will be manipulating for each measurement. The value(s) you are manipulating is called the independent variable (see definition below) and the value(s) you are observing/recording is called the dependent variable (see definition below). Write down the dependent and independent variables.In more advanced labs, you may have multiple variables (see definition below), more than one independent and dependent variable
Independent and Dependent Variables:
An independent variable is the variable you have control over, what you can choose and manipulate. It is usually what you think will affect the dependent variable. In some cases, you may not be able to manipulate the independent variable. It may be something that is already there and is fixed, something you would like to evaluate with respect to how it affects something else, the dependent variable like color, kind, time.
A dependent variable is what you measure in the experiment and what is affected during the experiment. The dependent variable responds to the independent variable. It is called dependent because it "depends" on the independent variable. In a scientific experiment, you cannot have a dependent variable without an independent variable.
Example: You