PRACTICAL Name:

Measuring the speed of reflexes

You need:
■ metric rulers

Measure the speed of your reflexes 0.26

1 Work in pairs. One student holds a ruler between 0.25
thumb and forefinger so that the ruler hangs with its 0.24
zero mark at the bottom. The other waits with thumb 0.23
and forefinger of one hand about 2 cm apart and level 0.22
with the zero mark of the ruler. 0.21
0.20
2 The student holding the ruler says ‘ready’, then drops
0.19
the ruler within five seconds without further warning.
0.18
The other student must catch the ruler between 0.17
thumb and forefinger. 0.16
Note the number of centimeters the ruler has 0.15
dropped by looking at the position of the thumb and

Time (s)
0.14
forefinger on the ruler. 0.13
0.12
3 Calculate the average distance over at least ten ruler
0.11
drops. Use the graph opposite to convert this distance
0.10
into response time, in seconds. Draw a graph showing 0.09
the range of results for the whole class. 0.08
0.07
Questions 0.06
a Name all the parts of the nervous system which 0.05
impulses travel through as you respond to the ruler 0.04
0.03
dropping.
0.02
b Your result is the time it takes for impulses to travel 0.01
from your eyes to your hand. Measure this distance 0.00
and use it to calculate the speed of nerve impulses, in 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Distance (cm)
meters per second.

Your teacher will be looking for:

■ careful collection of data
■ good presentation of results
■ accurate use of the conversion graph
■ successful calculation of the approximate speed of
nerve impulses

Further work
The ‘detector’ in the experiment above was the eye. Design an
experiment to measure the speed of reaction when the signal is a
sound detected by the ear.

© OUP: this may be reproduced for class use solely for the purchaser’s institute