Question

Robert places six eggs in a pot of boiling water (100°C) and six eggs in a pot with water at 80°C. He keeps the eggs in the water for ten minutes. Then he removes the eggs, cracks them, and counts the number of eggs that are fully cooked from each pot. What is the independent variable in this experiment?

Answer 1

The independent variable in this experiment is the time the experiment took. This is because both the temperature and the number of cooked eggs can be affected during the process of the experiment. 

Temperature of the water can be affected by the temperature of the eggs when they are first lowered into the water. This would decrease the temperature of the water, making it a depended variable.

The number of eggs cooked can be affected by the temperature. This would mean that the number of cooked eggs could differ depending on the temperature, meaning that it is a dependent variable.