Question

Nami conducts an investigation on plants. She places a grow light on a timer to give the plants different amounts of light to see if this would affect their growth. In this investigation, the amount of light is the.

Answer 1

The amount of light is the independent variable.

Answer 2

An independent variable, as the name suggests, is a variable that is manipulated by the investigator (Nami) to produce a desired effect. The desired effect produced is known as the dependent variable.

All other variables (i.e. type of plant, duration of experiment) are kept constant throughout the setups and are known as controlled variables.