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Some things vary in a pattern that cannot be influenced (for example, time just ticks on; it's a variable as we know if we wait the time will have changed - but we cannot make it chage (unless we are superman making the world go backwards. the growth of a plant. measured by it's height, changes (is a variable) but depends on time and factors such as heat, moisture. It is a dependent varible. By convention we say x is independent and y depends on x.
In probablity, we talk about independent events - teh occurrence of one does not make the other more or less likely.
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