Independent Variable

Real World Example

Imagine you're trying to find the perfect recipe for making your morning coffee taste just right. Just as you might adjust the amount of sugar you add to your coffee to see how it affects the flavor, researchers manipulate an independent variable to observe its effect on the outcome. In this analogy, the sugar is the independent variable because you're changing its amount (manipulating it) to see how it impacts the taste of your coffee, just as researchers change an independent variable to see how it affects the results of an experiment.