Imagine that youre doing an experiment to measure how a persons shoe size depends on his or her height. when you plot your data, what should be on the y-axis

you would plot shoe size on the y axis and height on the x axis.

Explanation:

y is the dependent variable, and x is the independent variable. those are actually very easy to understand words!! the dependent variable, verbatim, DEPENDS on you to change it. let me put this in context. your question states that a person's shoe size depends on their height. (this means shoe size is the dependent variable, meaning height is the independent variable). i'll give you another example. lets say that as a car's speed increases, the time it takes to reach a destination decreases. the time it takes doesn't depend on anything, you can't change it! but, the speed depends on you to change it, making it the dependent variable. you would plot time on the x axis and speed on the y axis.