My son decided to do the Oil Spill project for his science fair project. We are having trouble determining the controlled variable, the independent variable, and the dependent variable.
I think that the controlled variable would be the 3 cups of water and 1 cup of oil used each time, as well as the amount of time (30 seconds) that the coffee filter is left in the solution.
Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Goo Be Gone Variables
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Re: Goo Be Gone Variables
Hello,welcome to science buddies!
I’ve looked at the experiment your son seems to be performing and it seems absolutely fascinating! It is very often that people get confused about which variables are considered which, for your sons controlled variables you are totally correct that it would be the 3 cups of water to the 1 cup of vegetable oil, the time of the reaction, but also there would be the coffee filter that is being reused, the measuring cup that is also being reused and anything else that is totally the same for each trial. Independent variables are basically what is being changed so it seems that in this case, the sorbents would be the independent variable because different sorbents are being used. The dependent variable is what you are measuring with this experiment, it is a bit unclear if you are directly going off of what the site says procedure wise, but generally speaking the absorption would be tested in this situation.
Hope this helps!
I’ve looked at the experiment your son seems to be performing and it seems absolutely fascinating! It is very often that people get confused about which variables are considered which, for your sons controlled variables you are totally correct that it would be the 3 cups of water to the 1 cup of vegetable oil, the time of the reaction, but also there would be the coffee filter that is being reused, the measuring cup that is also being reused and anything else that is totally the same for each trial. Independent variables are basically what is being changed so it seems that in this case, the sorbents would be the independent variable because different sorbents are being used. The dependent variable is what you are measuring with this experiment, it is a bit unclear if you are directly going off of what the site says procedure wise, but generally speaking the absorption would be tested in this situation.
Hope this helps!