The difference between a theory and a hypothesis is that the former has been tested and is an explanation.

The latter is an educated guess that has not yet been proven or widely accepted.

An experiment I have done was the effects of music types on a plant. The independent variable was the
type of music and the dependent variable was the resulting growth or lack thereof. The variables that
appear most often are the controlled ones such as temperature, exposure times, or lighting.

A hypothesis to explain the results of an experiment about “more algae growing in a fish tank in summer
than in the winter” would be that in the summer there is more algae growth due to the higher temperature.

The dependent variable in an experiment about, “an investigation into the effect of light wavelength on
the growth of algae” would be the algae growth, and the independent variable of said experiment would
be the light provided.

Three control variables for the above experiment would be light bulb, time of light, and distance from
algae.