I am uncertain about the terms "determine [something]" and "determine on [something]." These words seem to have similar meanings, but possibly with different connotations. Consider this example:
What determines whether you are a career success or a failure?
In this sentence I'm puzzled by the difference, if any, between "determines whether" (which the sentence uses) and "determines on whether" (which it doesn't). How do the meaning of the two wordings differ in sense?
They are quite different in meaning. Oxford Learner's Dictionaries brings the different senses out well:
determine [transitive]: to discover the facts about something; to calculate something exactly
synonym: establish
determine something An inquiry was set up to determine the cause of the accident.
determine what, whether, etc… We set out to determine exactly what happened that night.
it is determined that… It was determined that she had died of natural causes.
...
[transitive, intransitive] determine to do something ... determine on [doing] something: to decide definitely to do something They determined to start early. [They determined on an early start / starting early.]
