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Experimental Design and Data Table Chart

Postby Sai018 » Fri Jan 02, 2015 1:22 pm

I am in 9th Grade, someone please help me . I have looked everywhere but I couldn't find an answers. My topic is I am counting stars with a software I created. And i need the control, in this experiment. What is my data, I need to have data in a table and make it into a bar graph because I am comparing two things. I am comparing for which is better, a human counting stars or a computer counting stars. My dependent variable is the number of stars that are found. But what is my independent variable and the data for this experiment?

I think this project is catagorized as an engineering experiment. Please help me! This project deadline is coming up.

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Re: Experimental Design and Data Table Chart

Postby tdaly » Fri Jan 09, 2015 8:31 am

Hi Sai08,

I'm sorry that it has taken so long for someone to reply to you! The independent variable is the thing you change; the dependent variable is the thing that responds to changes in the independent variable. You are right that your dependent variable is the number of stars counted. You are comparing a human counter vs. a computer counter, so your independent variable is how the stars are counted--human or computer. The data are information you gather to answer your question. Since you are comparing whether a human or computer counts stars "better" (how are you defining better?), then the data you collect will be the number of stars counted by each method.
All the best,

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