What is dependent or independent variable in my project?

My project is weather or not age effects your sense of smell(and it in fact does) I asked six people in five different age groups to smell different things but I don't know what the difference between my independent and dependent variables r poses hop thnxWhat is dependent or independent variable in my project?
The independent variable is what you, the researcher, purposely changes in the experiment to see if it effects the results. In this case, you are purposely picking different ages.



The dependent is the measurable results. In this case, it's the sense of smell (you can measure it by having individuals rate on a scale from 1-10 how strongly they can smell the scent).