International travel and business require the conversion of American dollars into foreign currency. During part of 2005, one American dollar was worth 6 Croatian Kuna. Robin converts x dollars into y kuna. Which expression is the independent variable in this situation?

a. 6y
b. 6x
c. y
d. x

Question

International travel and business require the conversion of American dollars into foreign currency. During part of 2005, one American dollar was worth 6 Croatian Kuna. Robin converts x dollars into y kuna. Which expression is the independent variable in this situation? 

a. 6y 
 b. 6x 
 c. y 
 d. x

mathstudent55 · Answer

The independent variable is the variable you can pick any number you want. The dependent variable varies according to what amount of the independent variable you picked.

mathstudent55 · Answer

Since the conversion factor is 6 kuna for each dollar, if you start with x dollars, you end up with 6x kuna.
The expression is: y = 6x
You can pick any amount of dollars, x, you want, and you will get the corresponding value in kuna, y.