With the information from exercise 8.25, you can calculate the average age of the ocean floor. first, find the total area of the ocean floor (equal to about 60% of the surface area of earth). then compare this with the area created (or destroyed) each year. the average lifetime is the ratio of these numbers: the total area of ocean crust compared to the amount created (or destroyed) each year.

An  atom  (ours, not carroll's) consists of a positively charged  nucleus, surrounded by one or more negatively charged particles called  electrons. the positive charges equal the negative charges, so the atom has no overall charge; it is electrically neutral. most of an atom's mass is in its nucleus; the mass of an electron is only 1/1836 the mass of the lightest nucleus, that of hydrogen. although the nucleus is heavy, it is quite small compared with the overall size of an atom. the radius of a typical atom is around 0.1 to 0.25 nanometres (nm), whereas the radius of a nucleus is about 10-6  nm.  *  if an atom were enlarged to the size of the earth, its nucleus would be only 200 feet in diameter and could easily rest inside a small football stadium.read more on -

Independent variable is something that is changed in a experiment.