try writing your own variables and hypotheses

Question

I have to make up my own manipulated variable, responding variable, and hypothesis

Answer 1

I don't know what kind of experiment you're designing, so I'll simply give you some general information about variables & experiment design.

 

The "manipulated variable" (also called "independent variable") should meet two requirements:

1) it cannot be acted upon or varied by anything or anyone other than the scientist running the experiment;

2) its value must change with each trial within your experiment, which should run for more than a few trials.

 

The "responding variable" (also called "dependent variable") may only be acted upon by the "manipulated variable", so that we know its result comes from manipulating the "manipulated variable".

 

There can be more than one of each variable, but scientists usually "control" certain variables in order to make results easier to interpret. For example, I like to make ice cream & want to find out how much sugar would be most liked by people who taste it. I will have to make several batches of ice cream, each with a specific amount of sugar - but none of the batches will have the same amount of sugar. In fact, I would make the amounts of sugar different enough that no one should confuse one batch for another. The sugar is the "manipulated" variable. "Sweetness of taste" is the "response" variable.

 

What if some people like chocolate ice cream & others prefer vanilla (or strawberry or whatever)? Well, I don't want anyone to answer based upon flavor - only sweetness - so I will make all batches the exactly same flavor. In fact, all batches will have exactly the same ingredients, in exactly the same amounts, prepared exactly the same way, and churned to exactly the same consistency. I want there to be no difference in my ice cream except for one thing: sugar, my "manipulated" variable.

 

My experiment would then go a bit further: each person who tries my ice cream will get exactly the same portion & they will have exactly the same amount of time to taste it before answering my survey. In this way, we "control" any kind of variable that might confound our results by distracting subjects away from the thing we are investigating. Experiments work exactly this way in social studies, psychology, marketing, etc., and a few simple changes make this applicable to science, as well.

 

"Hypothesis" is simply your prediction of the result. You might be right, you might be wrong - and "close" does not usually count - but it doesn't really matter. A scientist designs their experiment (variables), predicts what they believe their results will be (hypothesis), runs their experiment, analyzes the data, compiles the results, and reports their conclusion. The conclusion can be as simple as, "My hypothesis was correct (or incorrect). Most subjects preferred 3/4 cup of sugar per one gallon of ice cream. Very few subjects appreciated the ice cream with only 1/4 cup of sugar per gallon, and many subjects reported that 1-1/2 cup of sugar per gallon tasted too sweet."

 

Sorry about the ice cream example, but it was convenient. I hope this helps you. Good luck!