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Suppose you go to a local stream and measure the temperature and the_______________________________________________
speed of flow of the water. A plot of temperature vs time has an
obvious dependent and independent variable - because you are in
control of the time. Likewise for flow speed vs time. But suppose you
decide to plot the two variables temperature and speed of flow against
each other - which is dependent - which is independent?
Unless you have deliberate control over the choice of one of the
variables, I don't really see where dependency and independency enter
the choice of axes. I simply state to my students that the expression
"plot A vs B" has a standard interpretation of A on the vertical axes
and B on the horizontal.