Heartbeat

Sanne van Melis, Nikita Cullinan, Milan Everaerts

Het College Weert

Summary
Heart rate is the speed of the heartbeat measured by the number of contractions of the
heart per minute. The lower your heartbeat, the better your health condition. The normal
resting heart rate for twelve and thirteen year olds is sixty to one hundred heart beats
per minute, but we noticed that some of our test subjects are over one hundred beats
per minute. We also noticed that girls have a higher heart rate than boys and taller
subjects have a higher heart rate than shorter subjects. The average heart rate of the
hockey players is lower than the heart rate of the subjects that play other sports.

Introduction
 We researched the heart rate of children within the ages of twelve and thirteen. These
childrens heart rate were measured while or after they sit, lay down, run, stand and
jump. We measured them with a blood pressure monitor. We wanted to know what
differences the variables would make on the subjects heart rate.

Literature Study
What should you know about your heart rate?
If you have knowledge about you heart rate it can help you monitor your fitness level, it
also might help you discover developing health problems. Your heart rate is the number
of times your heart beats per minute, heart rate is also known as pulse. Every person
has a different normal heart rate. As you age, your rate and regularity of your pulse can
change and may signify a heart condition or other condition that needs to be addressed.

Where is it measured and what is a normal heart rate?

The best places to find your pulse are the:
wrists
inside of your elbow
side of your neck
top of the foot
To get the most accurate reading, put your forefinger (not thumb because it has a pulse
of its own) over your pulse and count the number of beats in 60 seconds.
Your resting heart rate is the heart pumping the lowest amount of blood you need
because youre not exercising. If youre sitting or lying and youre calm, relaxed and
arent ill, your heart rate is normally between 60 (beats per minute) and 100 (beats per
minute).
But a heart rate lower than 60 doesnt necessarily signal a medical problem. It could be
the result of taking a drug such as a beta blocker. A lower heart rate is also common for
people who do a lot of physical activity or are very athletic. Active people often have
lower heart rates because their heart muscle is in better condition and doesnt need to
work as hard to maintain a steady beat.
Moderate physical activity doesnt usually change the resting pulse much. If youre very
fit, it could change to 40. A less active person might have a heart rate between 60 and
100. Thats because the heart muscle has to work harder to maintain bodily functions,
making it higher.
 How Other Factors Affect Heart Rate
Air temperature: When temperatures (and the humidity) soar, the heart pumps a little
more blood, so your pulse rate may increase, but usually no more than five to 10 beats
a minute.
Body position: Resting, sitting or standing, your pulse is usually the same. Sometimes
as you stand for the first 15 to 20 seconds, your pulse may go up a little bit, but after a
couple of minutes it should settle down. Emotions: If youre stressed, anxious or
extraordinarily happy or sad your emotions can raise your pulse.
Body size: Body size usually doesnt change pulse. If youre very obese, you might see
a higher resting pulse than normal, but usually not more than 100.
Medication use: Meds that block your adrenaline (beta blockers) tend to slow your
pulse, while too much thyroid medication or too high of a dosage will raise it.

Hypothesis
We hypothesized that the heartbeat would be affected when a person does or is
exposed to different things. We thought it would be affected by the different sports done
by the subjects. We didnt think there would be a difference in the heart rate between
boys and girls. We thought that maybe a persons height could affect the heart rate
because a person with longer legs could probably run faster than a shorter person and
not waste energy on extra steps(so taking longer strides) and having a lower heart rate
than a shorter person.

Research Questions
Research question:
1. What the average heart rate for children between the ages of twelve and thirteen when
they are exposed to different situations?
Subquestions:
1. Is there a difference between boys and girls?
2. Is there a difference between people who do different sports?
3. is there a difference between people of different heights?

Materials used
Blood pressure monitors

Influential variables
The health condition of the subjects,
The weight, height and/or age of the subjects,
The action performed by the subjects,
The different sports done by the subjects.

Background influential variables

the air temperature and/or weather.
The events of the subjects day (e.g. if the subject went by bike or car in the morning.)

Procedure
We did our research in this order:
1. Collected information and did background research on heart rate
2. Made a questionnaire and got people to fill it in
3. Chose subjects
4. Took measurements (running, sitting etc.)
5. Collected results
6. Started making research file
7. Completed the write up.
 Results
The following variables were the same for each subject:
Weather and temperature
Equipment
Location of the experiment
The following were different:
The ages (12 or 13)
The sports done by each of the subjects
The heights of the subjects
This are the results of the research:
The average heartbeat of all people is 97.5
The average heartbeat of the girls is 100.3
The average heartbeat of the boys is 93.8
The average heartbeat of people who play hockey is 97.1
The average of people who play different sports is 97.9
The average of shorter people is 89.7( people shorter than 160 cm)
The average if taller people is 99.7(people taller than 160 cm)

Table 1: Information about the subjects,

Question Subje Subje Subje Subje Subje Subje Subje Subje Subje
ct 1 ct 2 ct 3 ct 4 ct 5 ct 6 ct 7 ct 8 ct 9

Age 13 13 13 12 13 13 13 12 13

Boy or Girl Girl Boy Boy Boy Girl Girl Boy Girl
Girl

Heigth 172 162 145 174 175 163 170 155 173
cm cm cm cm cm

Sports Hocke Hocke Foot- Basket Krav Horse Hocke Hocke Hocke
y y ball -ball Maga riding y y y

Average 99.8 97.4 91.4 90.8 105.2 104.2 94.8 88 108.6

Table 2: The heart rate of the subjects,

Exercise Subje Subje Subje Subje Subje Subje Subje Subje Subje
 ct 1 ct 2 ct 3 ct 4 ct 5 ct 6 ct 7 ct 8 ct 9

Laying 80 96 75 65 79 92 77 69 79
down

Sitting 72 89 84 74 90 94 98 75 99

Standing 75 91 85 73 73 97 63 79 91

Jumping 111 115 98 108 124 98 88 100 137

Running 161 96 115 134 160 140 148 117 137

Average 99.8 97,4 91,4 90,8 105,2 104,2 94,8 88 108,6

Conclusion
The results of the research show that the average heart rate of the subjects tested is 97,5 beats
per minute. They also show that parts of our hypothesis were proved wrong and some right. We
thought that the different sports played by the subjects would make a difference in the heart rate
which is correct. Most of the subjects in this test played hockey so we calculated the average
heart rate for hockey players and the heart rate of people who played other sports, but there
was only a slight difference between the two groups. Therefore hockey players on average have
a lower heart rate than people who play other sports. Our second assumption was wrong, we
thought that there wouldn't be a difference between the heart rate of girls and boys. Our results
show that on average boys have a lower heart rate that girls. We were also wrong about our
third assumption which was that the taller subjects would have a lower heart rate than the
shorter subjects. It was the other way round, the shorter subjects had a lower heart than the
taller subjects.
 Sources
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/MyHeartandStrokeNews/All-About-
Heart-Rate-Pulse_UCM_438850_Article.jsp#.WAdfj3lf2Uk