doing a biology project and they want us to figure out how long it takes to cook 6 different foods at 5 different temperatures and gather 30 separate data points. They want us to identify an x(independent) and a y(dependent) variable that can be recorded on a table. Would x be the temperature and y the food item?
how long: dependent temp
type of food: independent
temperature: independent
What you have is two independent variables. Now if you are simmering, temperature is probably very near the same for all (near boiling point), but in the oven, temperature definitely affects cooking time.
why is time considered the variable instead of being considered the result/answer?
To identify the independent (x) and dependent (y) variables for your biology project, you need to understand the purpose of your experiment and the expected outcome.
In this case, if you are investigating the relationship between cooking time and temperature for different food items, you can consider the following:
1. Independent Variable (x): Temperature
The independent variable is the factor that you change or control during the experiment. In your case, you are varying the temperature, so temperature would be the independent variable. You are testing the effect of different temperatures on the cooking time.
2. Dependent Variable (y): Cooking Time
The dependent variable is the factor that you measure or observe in response to the independent variable. In your case, cooking time depends on the temperature, so cooking time would be the dependent variable. As you change the temperature, you will measure the corresponding cooking time for each food item.
Therefore, in your table, you would record temperature as the independent variable (x) and cooking time as the dependent variable (y). Each row in the table would represent a combination of temperature and food item, with the corresponding cooking time recorded for each data point.