Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

In the experiment " How Does Solar Cell Output Vary with Incident Light Intensity?" at https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p014.shtml what would/could be the control?

For my son's project he has to have a independent variable, a dependent variable, a control, and a constant. We can figure out all of them for the experiment except what the control would be.

Thank you

Good Evening!

You two embarked on such an ambitious project! Kudos to you both on this. After reviewing this experiment I believe your control is: an initial reading with no light bulb for both open-circuit and short-circuit on the surface you are doing your experiment on.

Think of control as "how things are before you start changing it up/altering it with light bulbs"

I hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Elizabeth