What is a key characteristic of an independent variable?

An independent variable is defined as the factor that is manipulated or changed by the experimenter in an experiment. This means that the experimenter controls this variable to investigate its effect on another variable, typically referred to as the dependent variable. By adjusting the independent variable, researchers can observe how it influences outcomes and measurements in the experiment.

For example, if an experiment is designed to test the effect of different amounts of sunlight on plant growth, the amount of sunlight is the independent variable. The experimenter can change this variable by providing varying levels of light to different groups of plants and then measure the growth of the plants, which would be the dependent variable.

In contrast, the other characteristics attributed to the independent variable are not accurate. It doesn't depend on other factors, nor is it supposed to remain fixed (as it is manipulated). Additionally, rather than changing in response to the dependent variable, the independent variable is the one that is intentionally varied to observe how it affects the outcome.