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A variable in an experiment which is held constant in order to assess the relationship between multiple variables [a], is a control variable. [2] [3] A control variable is an element that is not changed throughout an experiment because its unchanging state allows better understanding of the relationship between the other variables being tested.
A scientific control is an experiment or observation designed to minimize the effects of variables other than the independent variable (i.e. confounding variables). [1] This increases the reliability of the results, often through a comparison between control measurements and the other measurements. Scientific controls are a part of the ...
The independent variable of a study often has many levels or different groups. In a true experiment, researchers can have an experimental group, which is where their intervention testing the hypothesis is implemented, and a control group, which has all the same element as the experimental group, without the interventional element.
When the expectation of the control variable, [] =, is not known analytically, it is still possible to increase the precision in estimating (for a given fixed simulation budget), provided that the two conditions are met: 1) evaluating is significantly cheaper than computing ; 2) the magnitude of the correlation coefficient |, | is close to unity.
The explanatory variable is the diet pill and the response variable is the amount of weight loss. Although the sex of the patient is not the main focus of the experiment—the effect of the drug is—it is possible that the sex of the individual will affect the amount of weight lost.
A variable may be thought to alter the dependent or independent variables, but may not actually be the focus of the experiment. So that the variable will be kept constant or monitored to try to minimize its effect on the experiment. Such variables may be designated as either a "controlled variable", "control variable", or "fixed variable".
The T-V diagram of the rubber band experiment. The decrease in the temperature of the rubber band in a spontaneous process at ambient temperature can be explained using the Helmholtz free energy = where dF is the change in free energy, dL is the change in length, τ is the tension, dT is the change in temperature and S is the entropy.
For example, an experimental uncertainty analysis of an undergraduate physics lab experiment in which a pendulum can estimate the value of the local gravitational acceleration constant g. The relevant equation [1] for an idealized simple pendulum is, approximately,