The Effect Genders and Exercise Have
on the Human Heart Rate
Carmen Witherspoon
T. Barbeau
Biology 104 Lab
September 23, 2009
Abstract
In this study I tested the hypotheses that exercise effects human
heart rate and that gender does not effect heart rate. Heart rate can be
influenced by things such as age, health problems, and even weight. To
evaluate these hypotheses, our class simultaneously engaged in exercise
for one minute. Before we exercised we took our resting heart rate by
manual palpitations. Then after our one minute of exercise we took our
heart rate again. We recorded the data and documented it in excel
which gave us the T-test P-values, the means and also a chart. These
results confirmed that gender does not influence heart rate and that
exercise does influence heart rate.
Introduction
The scientific method is one of the many ways scientists use in order
to learn about a part of the natural world that they did not previously
know about (Goodenough, 2010). The scientific method consist of five
steps which are usually executed in this exact order. First, you form a
question based on observations. Secondly, you form a hypothesis. Third,
you make a prediction based on the hypothesis and design and conduct
a controlled experiment to test the prediction. Fourth, you collect data
and examine results and the fifth step is to make a conclusion about the
hypothesis based on the results (Goodenough, 2010). In order to be able
to identify and describe the five steps of the scientific method and
execute each step accurately, our class performed an experiment based
on the heart rate of human beings.
Human heart rate can be influenced by many things, ranging from
gender to exercise (Barbeau et. Al., 2007). Using the scientific method I
had to answer the questions, “Does gender influence human heart rate?”,
and “Does exercise influence human heart rate?”(Barbeau et. Al., 2007).
My null hypothesis for the first question in this experiment was “there is no
difference in heart rate between resting and exercise conditions“. My
alternative hypothesis for the first question in this experiment was “there is
a difference in heart rate between resting and exercise conditions. My null
hypothesis for the second question in this experiment was “there is no
difference in resting heart rate between genders (male and female). The
alternative hypothesis for the second hypothesis in this experiments was
“there is a difference in resting heart rate between genders”.
Materials and Methods
The materials needed in this experiment were a group of students, a
stopwatch, and a large space to move around. The dependent variables
in this experiment is heart rate. The independent variables are heart rate
and gender.
First, we measured our resting heart rate by using manual
palpitation of the pulse. We used manual palpitation of the pulse by
pressing your index and pointing finger against your wrist below the thumb
and count the number of beats for fifteen seconds and then multiply that
number by four to get your heart rate in beats per minute.
After we did that, the entire class got up and did leg lunges
together for one whole minute. After the minute passed, we took
measured our heart rate once again using manual palpitation. Once we
had recorded our resting heart rate and our heart rate after exercise, we
put them on the overhead projector and the instructor entered this data
into the program excel. This program generated a chart that showed or
results, including the T-test P values.
Results
We obtained our results by typing the data into the Excel
spreadsheet which automatically created a summary statistics table. This
table included two means, standard deviations and P-values for one-
tailed T-tests for each data set (Barbeau et. Al. 2007).
Discussion
According to the results of my experiment, there is no significant
difference in resting or exercise heart rate in males and females so I would
have to accept my null hypothesis which said that gender does not
influence heart rate. The other question in this experiment was does
exercise influence human heart rate and the conclusion to this answer is
yes. We saw that after we exercise for one minute that no matter how
strenuous the activity was on our bodies that heart rate did increase. So
for this question I would have to accept my alternative hypothesis.
During this experiment there were a couple of sources of
experimental error. We had athletes in participating in this experiment. It
would take more than just one minute of exercise to get their heart rate
up. Also there was some age difference, there could have been health
problems, and also some people did not exercise as hard as others.
Literature Cited
Goodenough, Judith. Biology of Humans: concepts, applications, and
issues/Judith Goodenough, Betty McGuire.- 3rd ed..
Barbeau, T., V. Bauer, J. Camper, D. Hildreth, P. King, T. Knowles, L. Pike, G.
Pryor, T. Roop, D. Scarborough, T. Shannon. 2007. The Scientific
Method. 1-9.