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Independent variable and dependent variable

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When an experiment is conducted, one variable is manipulated to see the impact on another variable -- that's why experiments address causation. The variable that is controlled or manipulated is called the independent variable and the one that is impacted is called the dependent variable.

An example from my text is how one recognizes hard work and its impact on productivity. A manager recognizes his or her employees, so the employees are very productive. Recognition is the independent variable and productivity is the dependent variable.

Question: I do not really understand this. Can someone give me another example of a situation from every day life where there would be an independent variable and a dependent variable?

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The solution to this posting explains "independent variable" and "dependent variable" and gives examples of both.

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The independent variable is the x variable. You could control this variable directly. For example, say you want to see how giving plants plant food affects their growth. You could set up an experiment, giving one group of plants no food, another group of plant some food, and a third group of plants a lot of food, then measuring how tall they grow. In this case, the independent variable is the amount of food, and the dependent variable is the height of the plants. (The ...

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