Effects of Exercise: Changes in Carbon

Dioxide Output
Abstract
You might know that your body needs oxygen to keep going, and that you breathe out
carbon dioxide as waste. What happens when you exercise? You have probably noticed
that you breathe faster, and your heart beats faster. What triggers your body to respond
in this way? How does it "rev up" to keep your muscles going? In this project, you will
get a peek into the fascinating science of exercise physiology and find out—with the
help of a color changing reaction.

Summary
AREAS OF SCIENCE
Human Biology & Health
Science With Your Smartphone
TIME REQUIRED
Average (6-10 days)

PREREQUISITES
Ability to physically exercise (doing jumping jacks). Knowledge of acid-base reactions is
helpful, but not required.

MATERIAL AVAILABILITY
Readily available

COST
Low ($20 - $50)

SAFETY
Adult assistance recommended for construction and setup of respirometer. Use a safety
valve in your experiment as recommended in the procedure to make sure that you do
not accidentally suck up some of the indicator solution.

CREDITS
Andrew Olson, PhD, Science Buddies
Edited by Svenja Lohner, PhD, Science Buddies
Sources
 Investigating CO2 in Breathing. Bronx High School of Science.
 How Much Carbon Dioxide Is Produced During Exercise? Teacher's Notes. Faculty of
Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Objective
To measure changes in carbon dioxide levels in exhaled air before and after physical
exercise.

Introduction
Every day, you need lots of energy for all the activities you do, even when you are just
sleeping. To produce this energy, your body extracts energy from the food you eat. This
process is called cellular respiration and takes place in the cells of your body. In a
series of chemical reactions, the food you eat is broken down to glucose, which then
reacts with oxygen from the air you breathe to carbon dioxide (CO2), water and energy
as shown in Figure 1.
 Figure 1. Cellular respiration—a process in which glucose reacts with oxygen to form
carbon dioxide, water and energy—happens inside the cells of your body.

The chemical equation of cellular respiration is given in Equation 1.

Equation 1:

C6H12O6+6O2→6CO2+6H2O+energy
glucose(food)+oxygen→ carbon dioxide+ water+ energy
Water and carbon dioxide are waste products of cellular respiration that are usually not
used by your body. Whereas the water ends up in your sweat or urine, the carbon
dioxide is released back into the air when you exhale. In this project, you will learn a
method for measuring the relative amount of carbon dioxide in the air that you exhale.
To measure your carbon dioxide output, you will make use of the fact that carbon
dioxide is an acidic gas. This makes it possible to use a colorimetric pH test. pH is a
numerical (specifically logarithmic) measure of how acidic or basic (also called
alkaline) something is. Technically, pH is the negative logarithm of the hydrogen ion
concentration: pH=−log[H+]

What this equation means is for each 1-unit change in pH, the hydrogen ion
concentration changes tenfold. Pure water has a neutral pH of 7. pH values lower than
7 are acidic, and pH values higher than 7 are basic (alkaline). If you want to know more
about acids, bases, and pH, you will find more information here.

A colorimetric pH test means that the color of the solution changes when the pH
changes. Here is how it works. When you add the pH indicator solution
 (specifically bromothymol blue) to plain water, it turns blue, or greenish blue, indicating
that the pH is near 7. Carbon dioxide is very soluble in water. When it dissolves, it forms
carbonic acid, which is acidic. This makes the pH of the water shift from neutral (7) to
more acidic (somewhere near 6)—the pH indicator will change color to yellow. Figure 2,
below, shows an example of the pH indicator solution bromothymol blue changing color
over this pH range.

Figure 2. The pH indicator bromothymol blue changes color from yellow to blue over
the pH range 6.0–7.6.

To compare your CO2 output under different conditions, you will exhale through a tube
into a bottle partly filled with the pH indicator solution. The CO2 that you exhale will
dissolve in the water, and gradually acidify it. You will be able to see the pH indicator
change color as this happens. By measuring how long it takes for the pH change to
occur, you will have a relative measure of the amount of CO2 in your breath. The less
time it took for the color change to happen, the more CO2 there was in your breath.

The two conditions you will test are before and after a short period of exercising. You
probably notice that your breathing gets faster and your heart rate increases when you
exercise. You can do your own research to look into how your body controls heart
rate and breathing during exercise, which is a topic called exercise physiology. What
do you think will happen to the amount of CO2 that you exhale after exercising? Will it
increase, decrease, or stay the same? And what does your result mean with respect to
the cellular respiration reaction in your body?

Terms and Concepts

 Cellular respiration
 Glucose
 Oxygen
 Carbon dioxide (CO2)
 pH
 Acidic pH
 Basic pH
 Neutral pH
 Colorimetric pH test
 pH indicator
 Bromothymol blue
 Heart rate
 Exercise physiology

Questions

 How is oxygen used and carbon dioxide produced in cellular respiration?

 How do cells in the body obtain oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide?
 How does the body sense and respond to increased cellular respiration rate?
 How can you measure the amount of carbon dioxide in your exhaled breath?
 What is a colorimetric test and what can you use it for?

Materials and Equipment

 Clear plastic bottle (ca. 500 mL) (2)
 Water
 Teaspoon
 Bromothymol blue solution (0.04%). You can purchase bromothymol blue through an
online supplier such as Amazon.
 Aeration setup for de-acidifying the pH indicator solution. The setup should include an
aquarium pump, tubing, and an airstone that can all fit together, although the airstone is
optional. Such a setup may be purchased at a local aquarium store, or through an
online supplier such as Amazon.
 Scissors
 Modeling clay
 Straw
 Safety valve for tube; available from Amazon
 Stopwatch or a clock or watch with a second hand
 A helper to time you
 Lab notebook
 Pencil

Experimental Procedure
Building Your Respirometer

1. Fill one clear plastic bottle a little less than one-third full with water and add one
teaspoon (about 5 mL) of the 0.04% bromothymol blue solution. You should get a nice
green or blue-green color (pH >= 7) as shown in Figure 3. If not, try using distilled water.
This will be your diluted pH indicator solution.
 Figure 3. Adding the bromothymol blue solution to the water should result in a green or
blue-green solution.

2. Cut about two inches from one side of the tube for the aquarium pump.
3. Insert the safety valve in between both pieces of tube as shown in Figure 4. The tip of
the red part inside the valve should be on the side of the longer end of the
tube. Note: The safety valve will prevent you from accidentally sucking up indicator
solution from the bottle.

Figure 4. The safety valve ensures that you do not accidentally suck up indicator
solution.

4. Cut a two-inch piece off your straw. You will use this as the outlet tube of your
respirometer.
5. Using the aquarium pump tube (with inserted valve and the airstone), the straw, and the
modeling clay, set up your respirometer as shown in Figure 5. Make sure that the inlet
tube reaches all the way to the bottom of the bottle. The outlet tube (the straw) should
stay above the indicator solution.
 Figure 5. Set up respirometer with inlet and outlet tubes and diluted indicator solution.
Measuring Your Carbon Dioxide Output

1. Fill the second bottle with the same amount of water as the first one and again add one
teaspoon of bromothymol blue solution. Make sure the solution has the same color as
the previous one and set the bottle aside as a control for color comparison.
2. Now you are ready to begin. Your helper should tell you when to start, and start the
stopwatch.
3. On your helper's command, take a deep breath and start exhaling through the inlet tube
into the indicator solution for as long as you can. Do your best to maintain your current,
comfortable breathing rate, inhaling through your nose and exhaling from your mouth
through the tube.
4. When the indicator solution in your respirometer has turned yellow-green (as shown in
Figure 6) and the color does not change anymore, your helper should stop the
stopwatch.
 Figure 6. At the end of your reaction the indicator solution should be yellowish.

5. In your lab notebook, record the number of seconds it took to change the color of the
solution. You may need to practice this process with your partner several times before
actual testing to determine the exact color at which to stop the time.
6. Now aerate the pH indicator solution (in the respirometer) to return it to the starting pH.
To do that, attach the inlet tube to the aquarium pump and switch it on (you can leave
the safety valve attached) as shown in Figure 7. Aerate the solution until the solution
matches the original color (compare to your control; it will take 5–10 minutes).
 Figure 7. Aerating the indicator solution with an aquarium pump.

7. When your respirometer solution is ready again, repeat step 3–6 until you have at least
three measurements at rest (more is better).
8. Next, collect at least three measurements right after exercising (doing jumping jacks) for
one minute. Test how long it takes you to change the color of the pH indicator
immediately after you finished exercising, then rest for 10 minutes while you re-aerate
the buffer. Then repeat the measurement until you have at least three data points for
each condition (more is better).
9. Average the results for each test condition and compare the results using graphs and
data tables.
10. How do your results compare to your expectations from your background research? Did
the amount of carbon dioxide in your exhaled breath decrease or increase after
exercising? Can you explain your results?