Wat does control group, independent variable, and dependent variable mean?

Question

I'm seriously confused I would like a simple definition.

I need help on this problem

Smithers thinks that a special juice will increase the productivity of workers. He creates 2 groups of 50 workers and assigns each goup te same task. Group A gets the juice and Group B doesnt. AFter an hour, Group A made 1600 stacks jand Group B 2100 stacks.

Whats the control group, independent variable, and depdendent variable?

For the control group i got Group A an Group B.

For independent variable i got the juice

I got nothing for dependent variable

Answer 1

Weird.... I just answered this same Smithers question a couple of days ago... Was that you?

Anyway, consider this:

Independent variable: what Smithers changed (and how he changed it)

Control: the standard used to determine if any changes occurred. (What you compare your results to in order to know whether any changes occurred.) In this case, how do you know if the special juice impacted productivity? You have to compare that group to something, which would be the group that didn't get any special juice.

Dependent variable: what will probably change because Smithers changed the independent variable

You are correct that the independent variable is the juice/whether the group got juice or not.

You've got the control group wrong.... Remember, this is what you control your results TO. If your Group A gets the juice, then someone doesn't get it. You can't just have a bunch of people take the juice, because you don't have anything to compare it to. You'd then only be able to say, "Yeah, 50 people go the juice, and they made 1600 stacks." That wouldn't mean anything to anyone, would it? You have to have a MEASURE or something to compare it to.... What would THAT be? That is your control group. Does that make sense?

FOr dependent variable, refer to the definition I give above this. Why is this juice so special? Why does Smithers think it's such a big deal? It's not the juice that's so great in and of itself, but what he hopes the juice will DO. What is THAT? That is your dependent variable.

Hope this helps.