Identify the independent and dependent cariables. b. An experiment to see how te
ID: 151844 • Letter: I
Question
Identify the independent and dependent cariables.
b. An experiment to see how temperature changes as a result of emitting greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. An experiment to see how many mutations occur in a population of bacterial cells over time. c. d. An experiment to see how exposure to different amounts of sunlight affects the amount of sugar that a plant makes. e. An ex periment to see how the rate of a chemical reaction today differs from the rate of the same chemical reaction three years ago.Explanation / Answer
The dependent variable is the variable which is being studied in the experiment, whereas an independent variable is a variable whose change is not affected by the change in any other parameter of the experiment at that time. Independent variable is not affected by the change in the dependent variable. But the dependent variable is affected by the changes in the independent variable.
In other words, the independent variable is the parameter where you are making the changes, and the dependent variable is the parameter which changes because of the changes made in an independent variable.
b) Here, the temperature change is being measured in the experiment, so, the temperature change is the dependent variable and greenhouse gas emission is the independent variable in this case.
c) Time is always an independent variable as one can do nothing to speed up or slow down the time. So, here, the dependent variable is the numbers of mutations that occur in the population and the independent variable is ‘time’.
d) Here the varying amount of sunlight is affecting the amount of sugar a plant is making, and we are studying the changes in the amount of sugar, so sunlight is the independent variable and amount of sugar is the dependent variable in this case.
e) In this case, we are studying how the rate of chemical reaction today differs with respect to the rate of same chemical reaction three years ago, so, the dependent variable is studying how the rate of chemical reaction today differs and the independent variable is the rate of same chemical reaction that occurred three years ago.