What is an independent variable and a dependent variable?

Question

anonymous · Answer

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farcher · Answer

An independent variable is one that you control and as a result of you changing the independent variable the dependent variable changes.

Suppose that you are measuring voltages across a resistor and currents through a resistor.

If you increase the current through the resistor in 0.1 A steps and measure the resulting voltage, then the current is the independent variable and the voltage is the dependent variable because its value depends on what you did to the current.