Mathematics constitutes a fundamental key for the description and understanding of many phenomena. The chemistry discourse incorporates mathematics in various ways and instances. At educational level, interchanges occur in two directions: mathematics provides support for clearer understanding of chemical phenomena, and the level at which students use the relevant mathematics is an indication of the clarity of their conceptual understanding in chemistry. The present work focuses on an issue for which mathematics tightly links to the conceptual understanding of physical terms – the issue of independent and dependent variables. The definition is in principle well known. On the other hand, the distinction between the two types of variables and their roles is not always clearly underlined at explanation level, and is often not sufficiently internalised by students. This results in a variety of misunderstandings and errors. Careful analysis of students’ works enables the identification of errors that can be tracked down to unclear distinction between the dependent and independent variables in a given context; such errors appear in several areas of chemistry, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The present work considers and analyses a number of representative examples, highlighting the impact of their unclear distinction and the ensuing importance of devoting specific attention to it. Selected addressing approaches from direct experience are included and their outcomes discussed.

中文翻译：

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内化因变量和自变量之间的区别对于更清晰地理解化学的关键作用

数学是描述和理解许多现象的基本关键。化学论述以各种方式和实例结合了数学。在教育层面，交换发生在两个方向：数学为更清晰地理解化学现象提供支持，学生使用相关数学的水平表明他们对化学概念理解的清晰度。目前的工作重点关注数学与物理术语的概念理解紧密联系的一个问题——自变量和因变量的问题。该定义原则上是众所周知的。另一方面，这两类变量及其作用之间的区别并不总是在解释层面上得到明确强调，而且往往没有被学生充分内化。这导致了各种误解和错误。仔细分析学生的作业可以识别错误，这些错误可以追溯到给定背景下因变量和自变量之间的不明确区别；这种错误出现在化学的几个领域，无论是本科生还是研究生。目前的工作考虑并分析了一些有代表性的例子，强调了它们之间不明确区分的影响以及随之而来的对其给予特别关注的重要性。其中包括从直接经验中选择的解决方法，并讨论了其结果。