Monday, January 18, 2010

I dont get the difference between a control and experimental variable?

and i dont get the difference between a independent and dependent variable, i have a test tomorrow and i still dont get the differenceI dont get the difference between a control and experimental variable?
hey! So I got your question on my question about dislocating your knee. (lol sorry this is the only place I could put the answer) Definately go for the surgery! I'm fully capable of walking again and everythings fine now. I still have to be careful ad wear my braces when doing physical activity. I have no limp or lasting effects! Thanks for answering my question!I dont get the difference between a control and experimental variable?
Experimental = The variable in which you the researcher/experimenter is manipulaiting or changing in the hopes to make some sort of discovery. Your control is what you compare your experimental varilable against. The best example is in a drug trial, where you have a new drug (experimental variable) and as a control you use a placebo (usually a sugar pill) Controls are used to help eliminate teh possibility of other circumstances confounding the outcome of the experiment (in this case the patient might get better based solely on the fact that they believe they are getting the medicine..





Independent variables are those in which the researcher has control over changing. For the above experiment, that would be the drug vs. the placebo. The dependent variable would be the thing the drug acted on. For instance, if the drug was a cholesterol lowering drug... the measured level of cholesterol in the blood would be the depentent variable. Its level is DEPENDENT upon whether or not the person received the drug or the placebo.
okay a control group - is a group that does NOT get the thing you're testing for...





For example if you're testing a HAPPY pill, one half gets a sugar tablet (the control group) and the other half gets the actual pill.





That way you can compare the difference..








Independent variable is something that doesn't depend on the testing methodology.





Like - if I don't pay for ice cream - then you may or may NOT get some.





You going to dairy queen is independent of my actions. However If I'm buying You're eating... that's dependent.
the control one is held constant it never changes this is the dependent variable, say you have a certain number of people in your experiment, the number of these people will not change. The independent variables do however change and you could have any number of these.
The control is the variable that NEVER changes.





The experimental variable is what makes or does change.
A control is how something would be found in it's normal state, such as bread on the counter. An experimental variable is what you change to the normal state when doing an experiment.

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