Question

Farmer Brown tests the hypothesis that the more alfalfa sprouts cattle eat, the more milk they produce. He divides his pasture into four fields and puts twenty cattle in each field. Field 1 cows get no alfalfa sprouts, field 2 cows get ten pounds of sprouts per day, field 3 cows get twenty pounds of sprouts, and field 4 cows get thirty pounds. He feeds all groups fifty pounds of regular hay per day, uses the same breed of cattle, and gives them the same amount of water. He measures gallons of milk produced per cow every day. What is the independent variable in Farmer Brown's experiment?

Answer 1

The amount of alfalfa sprouts the cattle are fed.

Answer 2

Answer: The amount of alfaalfa sprouts that cattle eat.

Explanation:

An independent variable in an experiment is the one which can be changed or manipulated in an experiment. The impact of changes on the independent variable are observed over the changes that occur in the dependent variables. A dependent variable is the one which cannot be manipulated in an experiment but changes occur are due to changes in the independent variable.

The amount of alfaalfa sprout that cattle eat is the independent variable as it is manipulated in the farmer brown test so as to observe the impact of change over the milk production of cows which is the dependent variable.