How are muscles of the forearm and hand affected by different temperatures of water, including ice water, warm water (50ºC), and room temperature(16ºC) water?
By: Jackie An, Gabi Gupta, Vivian Isenberg, Emma Malysz
By: Jackie An, Gabi Gupta, Vivian Isenberg, Emma Malysz
Have you ever been out on a cold day and realized that it is difficult to open a door and carry all of your books and pencils? Doesn’t it feel easier to do this when it is warm outside? We hypothesized that the warmer the temperature, the higher the force, but we decided to test it. By using the Vernier dynamometer, shown on the right, we were able to measure the force released by our hand grip. We placed both dominant and non-dominant hands in a one liter bucket of water for 30 seconds and gripped the device for 15 seconds, exerting as much force as possible, measuring the difference in the muscle patterns. We set up three different buckets, each containing a different temperature of water. The first has ice water (0ºC), the second had room temperature (16ºC), and the last contained warm water (50ºC). Before conducting the experiment, all four of us believed that the force of the right-hand placed in warm water would result in the strongest force, as it was our dominant hands and the warmest environment. We thought that the warmer temperatures would relax the muscles, giving us the highest results. Also, we felt the weakest would be the left hand in cold water, as it was our non-dominant hand in the coldest environment.
First, our group, all right handed, put our right hands into the bucket of ice water. Despite many complaints from the group members, each of us managed to survive the 30 seconds in the ice water. Each of us felt that it was extremely difficult to apply force to the hand grip, as our hands were all freezing. The graph on the right shows Jackie in red, Gabi in blue, Vivian in green, and Emma in orange. Jackie’s maximum force was 106.8 N, Gabi’s was 145.3 N, Vivian’s was was 178.3 N, and Emma’s was 180.9 N. Similarly to what we believed, we received different results while doing the left hand, which is shown on the left. Vivian actually surpassed her previous force, with her maximum force becoming 190.7 N. Gabi, Jackie, and Emma’s all decreased.
After the ice experiment, each of the team members waited for exactly 6 minutes before putting their hands in the 16ºC water. Same as before, each of us tested our right hands first. The colors and their matching person are the same as mentioned above. However this time, Vivian’s maximum force was the strongest, 184.7 N, followed by Jackie, 153.4 N, then Gabi, 152.6 N, and finally Emma, 129.9 N. Then, we tested the left hand, which had different results as well. Once again, Vivian’s left hand was stronger than her right, with a maximum force of 187.1 N. Jackie, Gabi, and Emma received almost identical results to their right hand, yet each of them had larger drops. This suggests that they could not hold the strength for as long as they could with the right hand. If you look at the two graphs, you can see drops in all four of the members, but in the graph on the left, the drops are much larger and much more frequent.
Finally, our group tested our hands in the 50ºC water. We hypothesized that the best results would come from the right hand placed in the warm water. Once again, Vivian had the most force, with the maximum as 209.0 N. This was her strongest trial by over 25. This time, Jackie was the second strongest, with a maximum as 191.0 which was also her strongest. Following Jackie was Emma, whose force was 183.2, another personal best. Last was Gabi, who had her strongest of 177.7 N. All four of the group members had the strongest results during this trial. Next, we tested the left hand. Emma’s was 200.9 N, Vivian’s was 160.5 N, Jackie’s was 169.1 N, and finally, Gabi’s was 114.3 N. Emma’s left hand in the hot water resulted in her highest score during the experiment, whereas the other three approached their average score.
After graphing the results, we found the average and made graphs. The following graph shows the all of the right hand results and the averages. Vivian had the highest average (190.67 N), then Emma (164.67 N), then Gabi (158.53 N), and finally Jackie (150.4 N). The averages from our left hand show that Emma’s, Vivian’s, and Gabi’s forces were all slightly less on their left hand, even though Emma and Vivian received their highest on their left hand. Jackie’s was slightly higher. The highest score for Emma was her left hand, warmest experiment, and her weakest was her right hand, room temperature water. The highest score for Jackie was her right hand, warm water, and her weakest was her right hand, cold water. Gabi’s strongest was her right hand, warm water, and her weakest was her left hand, warm water. Vivian’s strongest was her right hand warm water, and her weakest was her left hand, warm water. Three out of four members had their strongest test with their dominant hand in the warm water, which is what we originally thought. However, before we believed that the weakest results would be the left hand cold water, but 50% of the group had their weakest results while their left hand was in warm water. This result may be because our hands were tired at this point. If we had more time to conduct this experiment, our results may have varied and been closer to our hypothesis. Our experiment explored the realms of biology, particularly the muscular system. It also involves some facts about homeostasis and body temperature. While in a different environment, the muscles proved to act differently, which is what we were testing in the first place. We believe this experiment is great for aspiring scientists or anyone who is curious about muscle and their relationship to different extreme temperatures. If you ever do this experiment or something related to muscle strength and temperature, we would love to hear from you!
*all forces are shown in Newtons (N)
