Earl St Sauver, Heidi Ma, and Anastasia McGlade

P. 4 AP Bio
Drumm
Lab Date: 9/13
Due Date: 10/27

Effects of Temperature on Bradycardia

ü Purpose:

The purpose of this lab is to determine the differing effects on heart rate, as caused by Bradycardia, as the temperature of water
varies in human test subjects. The hypothesis us that differing water temperatures should lead to different heart rates when the
subject's face is submerged in water if water temperature effects Bradycardia.

ü Procedure

1. The test subjects pulse is measured while in a resting and sitting position. The subjects pulse was counted by a separate person
during a thirty second period that was measured by a third party observer with a stopwatch. This result was multiplied by two to
give BPM.
2. A basin was filled with water directly from the tap. The temperature was then measured with three temperatures dropped into
three different sides of the basin. This was done to increase the accuracy of the temperature rating as the individual thermometers
had a slight amount of variance and to ensure the water was at approximately the same temperature throughout the basin.
3. Then the subject immersed her head in the basin so that her entire face was under water. Then the same other person counted
the heart beats during a period of thirty seconds. Then this number is multiplied by two and recorded to give beats per minute.
4. Reusable ice packs were placed in the basin to cool the water to approximately 18 degrees centigrade. Then step four was
repeated.
5. Steps one through four were repeated again.

ü Data:

Subject One: Earl St Sauver (Male)

Trial Water Temeprature Heartrate HBPML

Control 1 E Resting-- No Water 44
Control 2 E Resting-- No Water 43

"Normal" H22 ±C ê 23 ±C ê 22 ±CL

Control 3 E Resting-- No Water 48

"Normal" H22 ±C ê 21 ±C ê 23 ±CL

Trial 1 E 48

"Cold Water" H18 ±C ê 19 ±C ê 18 ±CL

Trial 2 E 48

"Cold Water" H19 ±C ê 18 ±c ê 17 ±CL

Trial 3 E 46
Trial 4 E 44

Subject Two: Heidi Ma (Female)

Trial Water Temperature Heartrate HBPML

Control 1 H Resting-- No water 66

"Normal" -- 22 ±C ê 21 ±C ê 22 ±C
Control 2 H Resting-- No Water 68

"Normal" -- 22 ±C ê 21 ±C ê 22 ±C
Trial 1 H 42

"Cold Water" -- 19 ±C ê 18 ±C ê 19 ±C
Trial 2 H 50

"Cold Water" -- 18 ±C ê 18 ±C ê 18 ±C
Trial 3 H 46
Trial 4 H 50
2 Bradycardia Lab.nb

Trial Water Temperature Heartrate HBPML

Control 1 H Resting-- No water 66

"Normal" -- 22 ±C ê 21 ±C ê 22 ±C
Control 2 H Resting-- No Water 68

"Normal" -- 22 ±C ê 21 ±C ê 22 ±C
Trial 1 H 42

"Cold Water" -- 19 ±C ê 18 ±C ê 19 ±C
Trial 2 H 50

"Cold Water" -- 18 ±C ê 18 ±C ê 18 ±C
Trial 3 H 46
Trial 4 H 50

ü Data Analysis:

1) Average Temperatures
Temperature Measurements for Trial 1E: (22 °C, 23 °C, 22 °C)
22 ±C +23 ±C+22 ±C
3
= 22.3 ±C
Trial Average Temperature
1E 22.3 ±C
2E 22 ±C
3E 18.3 ±C
4E 17.7 ±C
1H 21.7 ±C
2H 21.7 ±C
3H 18.7 ±C
4H 18 ±C

2) BPM as percentage of average resting heartrate

Average Control Heartrate-Subject one

43 BPM+48 BPM
2
=45.5 BPM
Ñ Average Control Heartrate
Subject One 45.5 BPM
Subject Two 64 BPM

I 45.5 M * 100 % = 105 %

Trial 1E as percentage of average control heartrate
43 BPM
BPM

Trial BPM as percentage of Avg. Control Rate

1E 105 %
2E 105 %
3E 101 %
4E 96 %
1H 75 %
2H 78 %
3H 71 %
4H 78 %
 Bradycardia Lab.nb 3

Trial BPM as percentage of Avg. Control Rate

1E 105 %
2E 105 %
3E 101 %
4E 96 %
1H 75 %
2H 78 %
3H 71 %
4H 78 %

3) Change in BPM
(Trial-Average Control)
48 BPM + 45.5 BPM = +2.5 BPM
Trial Change in BPM
1E +2.5 BPM
2E +2.5 BPM
3E +0.5 BPM
4E -1.5 BPM
1H -16 BPM
2H -14 BPM
3H -18 BPM
4H -14 BPM
4 Bradycardia Lab.nb
Bradycardia Lab.nb 5
6 Bradycardia Lab.nb

ü Conclusion:

In the experiment, the prediction that Bradycardia would vary with the temperature appears to be false. Subject One's heartrate
increased in the warm water trials and Subject Two's difference between warm and cold water was erratic. Lower temperatures
produced the same heartrates in Subject Two. Neither the actual change in heartrate nor the percent of the control showed any
clear trends.

However, this study did suggest two conclusions. First, it appears that there is an absolute limit to the change in heartrate. It
appears human heartrates will not drop below approximately 45 BPM. However, it requires more data to confirm this prediction.
Second, this study does verify the existence of Bradycardia in some subjects. Subject Two had a drop in heartrate of approxi-
mately 25%. This confirms this response in at least some subjects.

Some errors were inherent to this experiment. The stopwatch method of timing is relatively inprecise and can lead to errors of
almost 2 BPM difference. Second, the difference between cold and warm temperatures was minimal. Bradycardia might be
affected by more significant temperature differences outside the scope of the study. Lastly, suject one had an extremely low
resting heartrate of 45.5 BPM (subject one has a history of practicing meditation), which is well outside the 60-80 BPM normal
range. This data can not be considered representative of the whole.

In order to improve this experiment, increased sample sizes and variance in water temperatures are needed. Individual's percep-
tion of the experiment (i.e., fear of drowning or dislike of cold) can lead to large differences in small sample sizes. The water
temperature should be lowered more and maintained at the lower temperature to affect the subject's heartrate. Also, this Bradycar-
dia investigation assumed that putting the subjects faces in water is the same as submerging their whole bodies underwater.
However, tthe full effect of Bradycardia may or may not require complete submersion, so we cannot make a gerneral conclusion
about Bradycardia. Furthermore, a large sample of both males and females, as well as age and body type would yield more
accurate results and produce a recognizing trend.