Reaction Time Physics Homework Post

Physics homework for 9/18/14: 

“Reaction Time” Blog Post - Describe what reaction time is and explain three examples of reaction time in your own life.

Thursday, September 18th 2014

Reaction Time 

Today in Ms.Reid's class we conducted a lab that involved recording reaction times. Our own reaction time was recorded a few times and another person's reaction time was also recorded. We did this in pairs and did two different ways of recording our reaction time; we used stop watches, and we caught rulers. This is the first day we have been introduced to reaction time in our physics class and we are learning about it because it will contribute to our first Chapter Challenge project where we have to create a driver's manual in groups.

What is reaction time though? In my own words, I would describe reaction time as the difference in the amount of time between when something begins and the beginning of a response. By that I mean say someone drops something and another person tries to catch it as fast as they can, when the person dropped whatever it is that they dropped the time began or the stimulation began. When the other person tried to catch whatever the first person dropped that the beginning of the response. To me, reaction time can also be how long it takes someone to react to something. With reaction time you must think fast about what you want to do and/or feel a sense that makes you want to do something, and then you must act upon that sense or want and actually execute your action. So the decision and the action both play a part in responses and reaction times.

But those are not the only things that come into play with reaction time, there are MANY factors that play a role in a person's reaction time. Reaction time can be used and seen in many scenarios and depending on the scenarios different factors can play different roles in the scenarios, but the main example used when describing reaction time is stopping a car or even just something to do with cars in general so I will use an example involving cars.

Say Ms.Reid was driving her cool, super slick Mercedes to Eastie on a really gloomy and overcast morning and she was extremely tired. All of that fog and what not from Mother Nature is just clouding up the area and her windows and she is trying to see and maneuver safely to the school. When all of a sudden she sees something and she cannot tell what it is and--OH DEAR GOD IT'S A TREE--*SLAMS BRAKES*

In such a situation any one would have to react fast, especially if you are driving and about to hit ANYTHING. But the factors here that affected Ms.Reid's reaction time were her sleepiness (technically, probably), and the weather. Now, Ms.Reid in real life would probably actually drive super fancily down the road to the school, but those things could have actually affected her driving even with her experience. Though remember that the weather and how you feel are not the only things that can affect your reaction time.

Reaction times are very important in many situations, with out it we might get into a lot of trouble on a daily basis! And with almost all science there is some math involved here and some laws of physics as well as motion concepts can be applied here. In class we recorded some times using stop watches and used basic elementary math to find the difference between our times to see our reaction times. We also found the mean of those times. The stop watches was the first part of our lab, in the second part we caught rulers as fast as we could and where ever we caught the ruler (say at "3 cm") we would record the measurements and convert the measurements into time using a graph and find the average to see our reaction time as well.

Real Life Reaction Time

We go through daily experiences that involve us to think and react fast so reaction time actually occurs a lot in our lives. 

Here are some of my own times where I have demonstrated my own reaction time:

--1. When I was in dance class we had to learn a lot of dance moves and practice a lot obviously and then we would perform. Well, with anything and especially dancing or something involving memorization and practice we can easily mess up because we are going too fast or something. Sometimes when I performed or practiced I felt super confident in a humble manner and tried to do my best whilst enjoying it and stuff. I would feel all dandy and happy inside and then I make a mistake! Once I make that mistake I have to act fast and just continue on. Or say there are some delays in playing the music or the music goes off while we are dancing; once it starts up again we all have to respond fast and keep going.

--2. Sometimes when you do not pay attention to something like cross walks and wait without looking at the cross walk you might react quickly once you see the actual cross walk go off. I know this has happened to me a lot with various things, and it is not just cross walks.

--3. Say you see something falling off or say you see something about to break or someone about to go berserk, normally you would do something and FAST. Reaction times vary with each person, but I am sure everyone would go as fast as they could. I remember my old Toshiba computer sitting on my dresser in fact and I accidentally tripped over the power cord. It was so close to crashing to the floor, but luckily I reacted fast and caught it... And I sat there for a good while shocked as all heck.

--4. An extra reaction time moment in my life. So one day going to elementary school in Woburn with my little brother we were walking on our way merrily to the bus stop close to the apartments, and we have to cross the road to get to the actual bus stop. While we were crossing I had not noticed one particular car driving fast towards us; but it hit the brakes so fast and so hard that SPARKS were made from the tires. And I was quite scared, I actually did not react by running but by trying to shield ourselves very fast. The car honked at us and we ran super fast to the sidewalk after that. Glad nothing actually bad happened but thank goodness for reaction times.

Good night,

Ooviya