Can someone please explain the dependent and independent variables to me?

Question

with an example please

Answer 1

The dependent variables are those that are observed to change in response to the independent variables. The independent variables are those that are deliberately manipulated to invoke a change in the dependent variables.

Answer 2

ok it has to do with an experiment.. ok lets say i was gonna tell  3 groups of people to brush their teeth with CREST toothpaste. i would tell group 1 to brush their teeth 1 time a day, group 2 to brush their teeth 2 times a day, and group 3 to brush their teeth 3 times a day.

now with that being said

an independent variable is a variable that always changes in an experiment

a dependent variable is a something that changes BECAUSE of the independent variable

u should know this too: a constant is a variable that does not change in an experiment..

so lets look at the experiment

the independent variable would be how many times u brush ur teeth a day because it changes with each group

the dependent variable would be your teeth because they differ from cleanliness BECAUSE of how many times u brush your teeth a day

and the constant would be CREST TOOTHPASTE because it is the variable that doesn't change in an experiment

yay =).. email me if u still don't get it..

Answer 3

A dependent variable is always "behavior", what an organism does...

Independent variables are controlled.  An experiment may want to see the affect the independent variable has on the dependent variable.  So, for example, you may hypothesize that people will "happier" on bright sunny days.  Your independent variable is weather, sunny days, vs. dark rainy days.  Your dependent variable is some scale that people rate how happy they are from "sad" to "very happy".  You randomly select men and women and ask them on the two different days.....

Other examples:

http://www.csmate.colostate.edu/cltw/coh...

(college prof)

Answer 4

Sure thing. Ok, let's say we have a function, any function; let's use the following as an example

y=2x

let's say that we own a store, and we'll let x be the number of things we sell and y is the profit made. One can notice that x can be any number at all, from zero to whatever our inventory is. Since this is the case, x is an independent variable. It depends on nothing to have a certain value. Our profit, y, on the other hand, is equal to two times the number of things we sell (x). If we don't have a value for x, we can have no value for y. This means that y is dependent on x, and thus y is a dependent variable. I hope this helps :)  

Answer 5

The independent variable is the one you can change.  You put cookies in the oven and set the temperature.  That is is the independent variable.  The dependent variable is the one you can not change.  This would be how much the cookies were cooked, if they were burnt...etc.

You can't directly control how much the cookies cook or are burnt, you can only set the temperature, or your independent variable.