Jordan wants to see if a kind of fertilizer helps her tomato plants produce more tomato fruits. She puts the fertilizer in one row of tomato plants. In another row of plants, she does not use any fertilizer. Which is best for Jordan to compare in her experiment?
the height of each tomato plant
the height of each tomato plant
the amount of sunlight each plant receives
the amount of sunlight each plant receives
the number of tomatoes she picks each week
the number of tomatoes she picks each week
the amount of fertilizer she puts down each week
the height of each tomato plant
The question in the beginning sentence is "to see if a kind of fertilizer helps her tomato plants produce more tomato fruits". So it seems to me that she doesn't care how high the tomato plants get, the question is how many tomato fruits are produced.
The best variable for Jordan to compare in her experiment would be the number of tomatoes she picks each week.
In this experiment, Jordan is interested in determining whether the fertilizer affects the tomato plants' ability to produce more fruits. Therefore, the number of tomatoes she picks each week will reflect the actual outcome of the experiment. By comparing the number of tomatoes picked from the row with the fertilizer to the one without fertilizer, she can assess whether the fertilizer had any impact on increasing tomato production.