Expert: Walter Hintz - 11/15/2006

Question
I am a the grade student with a science fair project to do on the normal&abnormal heart rate of smokers compared to non-smokers in the field study of anatomy(or whatever the study of humans is).I was wondering if you can help me out along the way(by E-Mail).Thank You,Sincerely,Dominick Bennett.


Answer
Hi Dominick
This is an ambitious project.  The first thing you must do is state your hypothesis.A good hypothesis would be
" Cigarette smoking increases heart rate"
Secondly you must design your experiment.  You will need to find some test subjects: smokers and non smokers. I would suggest at least two smokers and two non smokers. Be sure that the smokers are heavy smokers like a pack or more a day. For collecting data you would also have to take pulses so you will have to practice that..  Check the pulses of the subjects at about the same time each day.  Graph your data.  Let me know about your hypothesis and your experimental design.