Science+Experiment

**Scientific Method Template **
= = **Topic:** Reaction

Do males have a faster reaction time than females?
 * Question:**

"Reaction time is an elapsed time between a person receiving a message and responding to it. It means how fast a person can react to something." For example it can measures how fast someone responds to directions. It could be an eye movement or a vocal response or a sudden movement.
 * Background Information:**

"Simple reaction time is usually defined as the time required for an observer to detect the presence of a stimulus.

At the risk of being politically incorrect, in almost every age group, males have faster reaction times than females, and female disadvantage is not reduced by practice. The last study is remarkable because it included over 7400 subjects. In (1933) reported that mean time to press a key in response to a light was 220 msec for males and 260 msec for females for sound the difference was 190 msec (males) to 200 msec (females). In comparison, Engel (1972) reported a reaction time to sound of 227 msec (male) to 242 msec (female). However, things may be changing--Silverman (2006) reported evidence that the male advantage in visual reaction time is getting smaller (especially outside the US), possibly because more women are participating in driving and fast-action sports. Botwinick and Thompson (1966) found that almost all of the male-female difference was accounted for by the lag between the presentation of the stimulus and the beginning of muscle contraction. Muscle contraction times were the same for males and females. In a surprising finding, Szinnai //et al.// (2005) found that gradual dehydration (loss of 2.6% of body weight over a 7-day period) caused females to have lengthened choice reaction time, but males to have //shortened// choice reaction times.reported males use a more complex strategy than females." http://biae.clemson.edu/bpc/bp/Lab/110/reaction.htm

"Time goes with age because you know that your life is going by so fast that you don't even know that it is. Age always haves to deal with time because age is your life. Day by day year by year and time is mostly about you age and life." http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2008/01/reaction-time-and-age-of-subject.html

"You finally react to something and you notice that you want to be young this is how I think about time and age. The reaction time of a child is slower than an adult's. Fact, there is an inverse linear relationship between age and reaction time. The older you are, the faster you are (to a limit). Indeed, one source I noted declared that reaction time in the first grade may be twice as long as reaction time in the sixth grade. So these age differences are marked indeed."

"This is a challenge how fast you can react to something"

http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/reactiontime.html //**Or**// http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/sheep/reaction_version5.swf //**Or**// http://reactiongame.net/ http://getyourwebsitehere.com/jswb/rttest01.html
 * Or**

I think boys can react faster than girls.
 * Hypothesis:**

This is what you should do for the procedure
 * Procedure:**


 * 1) Find a reaction game.
 * 2) Pick 10 males and 10 females.
 * 3) Set up a computer to have the "Fastball Reaction Time Game" prepared for play.
 * 4) Tell each experiment participant to sit down in front of the "experiment" computer.
 * 5) Explain the game directions to each participant. ("Click on the "Play Again" button. Then place the cursor on the game playing field. Click the computer mouse as soon as you see the baseball. Play the game three times.)
 * 6) Record all three reaction times for each participant.
 * 7) Have the 10 males and 10 females play the reaction game.
 * 8) After the game put down their scores on your spreadsheet

10 Females 10 Males The game http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/reactiontime.html
 * Materials:**


 * Experiment:** Do the experiment


 * Data/Results:**

"Well like I had said in my hypothesis. What had happened was that I said that I think that boys have faster reaction time then girls do. I was right because what the test had came out to be was that boys had faster reaction time then girls. This is what I think but I know that I was right what I had said. Some people had cheated on playing the reaction game. They knew how to play the reaction game they just did it on purpose to make it look like they was doing it for fun. Plus what you have to do is that when the screen says swing batter swing. Then you hit the ball you just need to wait for a minute or something that do it on purpose. We did not make any mistakes while we were you the experiment. Well if the experiment did not go the way it should of went then we would of have to start everything over again. This is how I would it explaining the experiment in my own words.”
 * Conclusion:**