Question

A student is determining the influence of different types of food on growth rates in spiders. She feeds one group of spiders two caterpillars twice a week. The other group receives similarly-sized beetles twice a week. She records the amount of time required for individuals to reach sexual maturity. Her hypothesis is that the spiders feeding on caterpillars will have a faster growth rate because caterpillars have a higher protein content compared to beetles. In this experiment, what is the independent variable?
A) Spiders assigned to different feeding groups.
B) Time required to reach sexual maturity.
C) Number of prey items fed twice a week.
D) Growth rates of each group.

Answer 1

Answer:

C) Number of prey items fed twice a week.

Explanation:

An independent variable is a variable that is being manipulated during an experiment in order to determine its effect on another variable, the dependent variable.

In this case, all other variables are kept unchanged except the prey items fed to the spiders twice a week. Hence, this is considered the independent variable.

The correct option is C.