How Long Does It Take A Person To React To A Word
Speedy Science: How Fast Can You React?
A swift scientific discipline activity from Scientific American
Key concepts:
Reaction fourth dimension
Neuroscience
Gravity
Introduction
Call back fast! Have you e'er noticed that when someone unexpectedly tosses a softball at you lot, you need a footling time before you can move to catch information technology (or duck)? That'due south because when your optics run across an incoming bespeak such as a softball, your brain needs to first process what's happening—and then you can take activeness. In this activity, you tin can mensurate simply how long it takes for you lot to react, and compare reaction times with your friends and family.
Background
You may not realize it, merely when your senses pick up clues from the exterior world—the smell of baking cookies, the colour of a stoplight, the rrrring! of an alarm clock—it takes a fraction of a second for y'all to recognize that signal and respond. During that time your brain receives information from your senses, identifies a possible source, and allows you to accept action. The jam-packed fraction of a second is called your reaction time.
This activity teaches you nigh your brain's reaction time, but it as well relies on the laws of physics. Specifically, you can calculate your reaction time using our handy nautical chart, which is based on how rapidly a ruler falls. How do we know how quickly your ruler will fall? Gravity pulls all objects toward Earth's eye at the same speed. If you desire to effort this out at abode, try dropping a tennis brawl and a basketball from the same top: They should both hit the ground at the same time!
Materials
· Ruler (inches or metric)
· Paper
· Pencil
· Nautical chart (below)
| Line Where Partner Pinched Ruler (inches | centimeters) | Reaction Time (seconds | milliseconds) | ||
| ii in. | 5 cm. | 0.i sec. | 100 ms. |
| 4 in. | 10 cm. | 0.14 sec. | 140 ms. |
| half-dozen in. | xv cm. | 0.17 sec. | 170 ms. |
| 8 in. | twenty cm. | 0.ii sec. | 200 ms. |
| 10 in. | 25.v cm. | 0.23 sec. | 230 ms. |
| 12 in. | 30.5 cm. | 0.25 sec. | 230 ms. |
| 17 in. | 43 cm. | 0.iii sec. | 300 ms. |
| 24 in. | 61 cm. | 0.35 sec. | 350 ms. |
| 31 in. | 79 cm. | 0.four sec. | 400 ms. |
| 39 in. | 99 cm. | 0.45 sec. | 450 ms. |
| 48 in. | 123 cm. | 0.five sec. | 500 ms. |
| 69 in. | 175 cm. | 0.6 sec. | 600 ms. |
Preparation
• You demand to utilize some math skills in this challenge. To brand things easier, we've provided a chart, in a higher place, that y'all tin print or copy out on a slice of newspaper. The bones dominion: 100 milliseconds translates into about two inches or five centimeters.
• On a make clean canvass of newspaper, write the name of each person—including yourself—who will take part in this experiment. Yous simply need two people for this activity, merely information technology's also great for a group. Leave v spaces below each name.
Procedure
• Concur the ruler vertically and so that the zero finish hangs downwardly.
• Ask your partner to stand next to yous and place his or her manus below the ruler's zero line, ready to catch the ruler when it falls by pinching it betwixt his or her thumb and index finger. Your partner'south fingers should be merely below the ruler, but as close as possible to the bottom edge without touching or overlapping.
• Tell your partner that you will count from one to five and drop the ruler at some indicate during the count. Your partner volition need to catch the ruler equally apace as he or she can, pinching the ruler betwixt his or her fingers.
• Count from one to five and drop the ruler at some indicate
• Your partner should take hold of and compression the ruler. How fast did your partner appear to act? Did your partner'southward fingers compression near the zero line?
• Write down the centimeter or inch line where your partner's fingers pinched the ruler.
• Calculate how long it took your partner to answer using the chart provided. Was your partner every bit fast as y'all idea?
• Repeat the drib four more times for your partner, and record the measurement each time. Does your partner'due south reaction time alter? Are the five reaction times unlike? Vary when you drop the ruler: For example, you could drop on the count of five first, then drop on two.
• Switch tasks and attempt catching when your partner drops the ruler, then compare your results with the others. Exercise nigh people have a like reaction time? Are older people faster than younger people? Are girls faster than boys?
• You tin can also try a few variations: What happens when you tell your partner when you will drop the ruler? Does reaction time better with exercise?
• Extra: Ambidextrous, anyone? Echo this activity and compare your results when you utilise your dominant mitt—the hand you write with—and when you employ your other hand. Is at that place whatsoever difference between easily?
• Extra: Consider adding other distracting sounds and sights—such as turning on a Television or flicking a flashlight on and off—during the activity. Practise your responses slow with so many sensory signals?
Observations and results
Did you and your partner normally grab the ruler around fifteen centimeters (six inches)? What took so long?
On average, reaction fourth dimension takes between 150 and 300 milliseconds. If that sounds like a long fourth dimension, think virtually how much has to happen for you to react. When your centre sees the ruler falling, information travels from sensory cells called neurons from the eye to the brain's visual cortex, an area devoted to understanding what you see. Next, the motor cortex—the part of the encephalon that directs movement—has to send signals forth your spinal cord and to your arm, hand and finger muscles, telling them to answer in the proper sequence to grab the ruler—quick! That's a lot happening in less than half a 2d—and a pretty amazing feat!
More to explore:
Experience versus Speed from Scientific American MIND
Brain Brakes Car Faster Than Human foot from Scientific American
Reaction Time Test from the Human Benchmark
How fast are your reactions? from the BBC
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
How Long Does It Take A Person To React To A Word,
Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bring-science-home-reaction-time/
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