Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I want to do my own version of the footsize and height project (because I am interested in forensic science) but I am having a problem what to do regarding my variables - if I base this on height vs. footsize, I can't figure out what are my dependent, independent and especially what my controlled variable(s) is. Can someone help?

Hi!

Well, if I understand you correctly, you are attempting to study the relationship between footsize and height and see how they correlate e.g. is it a directly proportional relationship? In otherwords, as the footsize get larger, does the height necessarily increase?

In this case, your independent variable is footsize and your dependent variable is height. *Hint* Think of it as the height depending on the size of the foot. Graphically, you can even plot footsize on the x-axis and height on the y-axis.

Makes sense?

Shijun
Science Buddies Staff

yes, that makes good sense - thank you!