Dependent and Independent Variables
Variables are further distinguished as being either a dependent variable or an independent variable. Independent variables are regarded as inputs to a system and may take on different values freely. Dependent variables are those values that change as a consequence of changes in other values in the system.
When one value is completely determined by another or several others, then it is called a function of the other value or values. In this case the value of the function is a dependent variable and the other values are independent variables. The notation f(x) is used for the value of the function f with x representing the independent variable. Similarly, notation such as f(x, y, z) may be used when there are several independent variables that are not the same.
Read more about this topic: Variable (mathematics)
Famous quotes containing the words dependent, independent and/or variables:
“People who get through life dependent on other people’s possessions are always the first to lecture you on how little possessions count.”
—Ben Elton (b. 1959)
“The ex-Presidential situation has its advantages, but with them are certain drawbacks. The correspondence is large. The meritorious demands on one are large. More independent out than in place, but still something of the bondage of the place that was willingly left. On the whole, however, I find many reasons to be content.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“The variables of quantification, ‘something,’ ‘nothing,’ ‘everything,’ range over our whole ontology, whatever it may be; and we are convicted of a particular ontological presupposition if, and only if, the alleged presuppositum has to be reckoned among the entities over which our variables range in order to render one of our affirmations true.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)