Identify the independent and dependent variables.

The given graph shows the relation between the annual sales corresponding to various years starting from the year 2010.

Here,

The x-axis represents “Year” and the origin that is the point ‘O’ is the starting point which is the year 2010 as mentioned in the question. And each division corresponds to increment of a year which means ‘0’ denotes the year 2010, ‘1’ denotes the year 2011, ‘2’ denotes the year 2012, etc.

The y-axis represents the “Sales (in millions $)” which is corresponding to a year mentioned in the x-axis. Each division corresponds to an increment of a million $ sales which means ‘1’ denotes 1 million $ of sales, ‘2’ denotes 2 million $ of sales, etc.

In simple words, independent variables are those variables that keep on changing and it is unaffected by the change of any other parameter. For example, Time.

Hence, Year is nothing but time and hence this parameter keeps on changing without any influence of any other parameter. So, Year is the independent variable here.

Whereas, the graph shows the sales corresponding to the year which means sales kept on changing with time and it is a variable that is dependent on the values of the x-axis which is the Year. So, Sales will be the dependent variable here.