Maths Statistics Coursework: Reaction times

Reaction Times

Plan

Hypotheses:         1) Boys are faster than girls are

                2) Right-handed students are faster than left-handed students are

                3) Right-handed boys are faster than right-handed girls are

Possible methods of testing

  1. Hit the mole (arcade game)- I would time how many moles they could hit in one minute, repeat this 3 times to get a fair result and then find an average. This would be read as the higher the number of moles that are hit, the faster the reaction. However you would have to travel to an arcade to carry this test out and it would be extremely expensive.

  1. Stopwatch- I would tell the student to stop it at a certain time e.g. 2 minutes, and however many seconds before or after they stopped the stopwatch, would be their reaction time, the closer the number of seconds it is to 2 minutes, the faster the reaction. This would of course be repeated 3 times to get a fair result and then the average found. However the stopwatch buttons may get stuck, therefore altering results.

  1. Dropping a ruler- I would take a 30cm ruler and make sure that the zero is inline with the index finger. I would then drop the ruler, which would be caught by the student (who is standing), then the number of cm’s nearest to the index finger where the zero was lined up with, would be taken down as the reading for their reaction times. The results would be read as, the lower the number of cm’s, the quicker the reaction.  This would be repeated 3 times for each student, to get a fair result, and then the mean found. This is the best method of testing, because it doesn’t cost money, you don’t need to travel and no errors can be found with a ruler.  

How is it a fair test?

I will make this a fair test by: -

  • Using the same 30cm ruler
  • Making sure the students are standing
  • Making sure the zero on the ruler is in line with the index finger of the student
  • Standing the students in the same position
  • Testing all students at the same time of day
  • Repeating each test 3 times
  • Using only year 10 students

Note: All Reaction’s are measured in cm’s

Methods of sampling

Hypothesis 1

Boys are faster than girls are

There are 307 year 10 students in this school, of which I need 50. I will use stratified sampling to find a fair number of girls and boys. Out of 307 students, 156 are girls and 151 are boys.

To pick the 25 girls and 25 boys from the data bank, I will use systematic sampling whereby I will role a dice, then take the number it lands on and then pick every ‘nth’ person on the list. I have rolled a 4, so I will pick every 4th person on the list, until I have my complete total of 25 girls and boys. I will use ‘4’ to select the people for all 3 hypotheses.

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Hypothesis 2

Right-handed students are faster than left-handed students are

I will again use stratified sampling, to find a fair number of left-handed and right-handed students that I need to total 50, out of the 307 year 10 students. There are 234 right-handed students, and 73 left-handed people.

To select the 38 right-handed students and the 12 left-handed students, I will pick every 4th person, as I did for hypothesis 1.

Hypothesis 3

Right-handed boys are faster than right-handed girls are

Out of the 307 year 10 students, 127 are right-handed boys, and 107 ...

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