What is a "control" in a science project?

how can time stay the same?

so, my project has to do with the rusting process of nails, i put nails in cups with a different liquid in each cup. would the control be the amount of the liquidin each cup?

yes the amount of liquid and the same amount of time each nail is in each cup

It’s the thing in the experiment that stays the same whre as the variable is the thing that changes. Like, say you were doing a project on sunlight making plants grow. You could put one spider plant in the closet and one spider plant on the window sill and water it once a day at 2 oe something. The control is, youre using the same plant, youre watering them at the same time everyday and the variable is, one is in the closetthe other on the window. See?

when i said time i meant like each experiment is 4 minutes for every experiment like that

And thevariable would be the different liquids. :)

yea

thanks guys

A control is typically a near identical experiment that leaves “something” unaltered (or in a “normal” condition) while that “something” is altered in the main experiment to see what the effect of alteration is.

e.g. having two rats in separate cages, which have been fed normally and appear to look and behave in a (near) identical fashion. If one is then given twice the normal food, it is possible to see how much the overfed rat changes (e.g. does it become more sleepy / alert; aggressive/docile; healthy/unhealthy. etc..

Without the “control” you don’t really know to what extent any changes would have occurred if you had not given the increased amount of food.

When doing human tests on a medication, a company might split a group of a 20 volunteers into two equal groups, giving a placebo to 10 and the actual medication to the other 10. If the placebo looks identical to the real medication, but non of the volunteers know who has the real medication (that is only known by the researchers), it is then meaningful to look for side effects in the group with the medication, as opposed to lacking those side effects in the “50% control group”.

– Best wishes Majikthise.

From my vocab list:The varible that stays the same and does not change. A Sentence: The cost of gas

NOT: an indipendent varible

I drew a picture of 2 people laughing out of control. That helps me know what a control is.

the amount of liguid in the cup is like the indipendent varible. the diffrent liguid is the dependent varible.

i would like to thank my science teacher >-< Thanks Ms. Metka!

Something that stays the same during the experiment/project.

the control is a standard you use to mesure the accuacy of your project something you the answer to and if that answer is wrong you know something is wrog in your experiment