Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am doing the mag-nificent breakfast cereal science project, but I don't know how to find the variables. In this project, I extract the iron from breakfast cereals by blending it with distilled water and running it in a funnel over a magnet. The iron additive is left over in the end. Help me identify the independent, dependent, and control please!

Hello, and welcome to Science Buddies! You have chosen an interesting project. Iron in a person's diet is very important. If you're going to eat cereal, you might as well eat cereal with nutritional benefit!

I would like for you to take a first attempt at your variables. First let's review definitions of different types of variables. More discussion can be found here:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... bles.shtml

Controlled variable: settings you wish to keep constant in your experiment so that it doesn't affect the outcome
Independent variable: settings which you, as the scientist, change in order to see how it affects the outcome of your experiment
Dependent variable: what you measure to determine whether it is affected by your independent variable(s)

Based on these definitions, what do you think your variables are? Remember, you can have more than one of each (but you don't have to).

Good luck!

I am doing the MagNificent Breakfast Cereal project, too. I thing the independent variable would be the cereal with the varying amounts of iron in it and the controlled variables would be the amount of cereal, amount of water, and strength of magnet. If this is correct then what is the dependent variable?

You are spot on with your independent and controlled variables. The dependent variable will be what you are measuring to determine whether it is affected by changes in your independent variable. Can you make an educated guess as to what that is for this experiment?

Would the dependent variable be the amount of iron found?

Yes it is! Good job, and good luck!

I am attempting to make a graph with an independent variable of "Percent Daily Value of Iron" and dependent variable of "Relative Iron Pellet Size" and I'm not sure if these are correct. I'm not sure how to start making the graph.

Hi, chauder8. Welcome to Science Buddies!

Your variables are correct. I recommend you make a scatter plot of your data. Are you familiar with these? If not, take a look here.
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... l#overview
http://www.statisticshowto.com/how-to-c ... tter-plot/

After review these pages and taking a first attempt, write back with questions you still have.

Good luck!