Estimate Your Reaction Time

What is a stimulus? A stimulus is something that causes a response. For example, your eyes may tear when you chop onions. The onion’s fumes are a stimulus.

Experiment 1 We are going to conduct an experiment to estimate how fast your hands react to stimuli. By doing this experiment, you will be able to estimate the average time that it takes a student to react to having his or her right hand squeezed. This is called reaction time.

Directions Mr. Dietrich will give the Timer the signal to start the timing device. Gently squeeze the hand of the person on your left as soon as you feel your hand squeezed. The person on your left squeezes the hand of the person on his or her left. The squeeze continues around the circle until it reaches the Leader, who calls out “Stop!” The Timer records the elapsed time. Find the mean reaction time rounded to the nearest tenth of a second.

Landmarks Mean(Average) To even out. 1) Add the numbers. 2) Divide by the number of numbers.

On a 4-day trip. Lisa’s family drove 240, 100, 200, and 160 miles On a 4-day trip. Lisa’s family drove 240, 100, 200, and 160 miles. What is the mean number of miles they drive per day?

Use a calculator to calculate the mean for this set of eight numbers. 80 80 80 90 90 90 90 90

Landmarks Maximum The largest value in a set of data. Example 240, 100, 160, 200, 100

Landmarks Minimum The smallest value in a set of data. Example 240, 100, 160, 200, 100

Landmarks Mode The value or value the occurs most often. Example 1 240, 100, 160, 200, 100 Example 2 240, 100, 160, 200, 100, 200

Landmarks Median The middle value when the numbers are ordered from least to greatest. Example 1 0.1 0.3 0.04 0.2 0.06 Example 2 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4

Experiment 2 Do you think that your left hand or right hand is quicker? You will perform an experiment to check.