Question

A student designs an experiment where she will hang a sphere from a rope, pull the suspended sphere back, release it, and record the time it takes to swing back and forth once. She will then repeat the experiment several ×, each time increasing the length of the rope.

The independent variable in this experiment is the

a) Time to swing back and forth once
b) Length of rope
c) Size of the sphere
d) Angle of release

Answer 1

The independent variable in the experiment with the sphere is the length of the rope, which the student changes to observe its effect on the pendulum's period.

Step-by-step explanation:

The independent variable in the student's experiment of observing the motion of a sphere hanging from a rope is the length of the rope. An independent variable is the one that is changed or controlled in a scientific experiment to test the effects on the dependent variable. In this case, the student is changing the length of the rope to observe the effect on the time it takes for the sphere to swing back and forth once. The time to swing back and forth once is the dependent variable that the student will record, as it is expected to change as a result of altering the independent variable, the length of the rope.