Karuna G. answered • 08/17/20
Mayo Clinic PhD, 5+ yrs teaching college & AP Bio, visual learning
In an experiment, the independent variable is the variable that you are testing the effect of, the one that you are actively manipulating (changing) to see what its effect(s) are?
Example: Experiment to test the effect of fertilizer amount of tomato production.
Experiment: Set up three tomato seedlings in three plants. Feed plant A 0cups fertilizer, plant B 1 cup fertilizer, Plant B 2 cup fertilizer. Count number of tomatoes produced by each plant in 5 month period.
Independent variable here is: Amount of Fertilizer, that is the variable you are testing the effect of. You are actively manipulating the amount of fertilizer in your experiment.
