What is an independant variable and a dependant variable?

Question

As in scientific experiments.

Answer 1

You could give an example
i.e give a brief description of a experiment and state the dependent and independent variable in this particular example.
If you do this it will use a lot of words aswell as showing you have a real world grasp of the concept

Answer 2

A variable is any measured characteristic or attribute that differs for different subjects. When an experiment is conducted, some variables are manipulated by the experimenter, so these are the independent variables. Dependent variables are measured from the subjects.

For example, consider a hypothetical experiment on the effect of drinking alcohol on reaction time: Subjects drank either water, one beer, three beers, or six beers and then had their reaction times to the onset of a stimulus measured. The independent variable would be the number of beers drunk (0, 1, 3, or 6) and the dependent variable would be reaction time.

Answer 3

independent variable, dependant variable.... i dont recall ever hearing of these before, but, think math...
independant variable is x
dependant variable is xy
makes perfect sense and its a quik writen answer... ok a quik joke... how is xy the dependant when xx is the historical dependant??... hey maybe that means my answer was wrong..
its not exactly wrong, as the "right" answer is more of a scientific hypothesis than it is a science law, or at least the term can be used in mathematics in SAID way so my answer is right in terms of mathematics, but the science term might have a different meaning, but, if i say that a girl is thick, many guys would think that is ok, others would think she was fat, so this is just about perception of common knowledge and that people are their own minds and that if my Answer was not right it still wasnt wrong, except for the part about xy being the independent could get me attacked by feminists, but its 8am and its a joke.

Answer 4

An independent variable is one which can take values chosen by you. The dependente variable is then automatically set through the functional connection between it and the independent variable.

Answer 5

I started writing the answer to this question but it became too long. Then I decided to have a look at the wilkipedia for the answer. Rather than regurgitate the information in that site to you or bore you with my long answer, I decided to send you the link where you can find the answer. Below is the link. I hope this is helpful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_variable