The Effects of Caffeine on Heart Rate
The purpose of our experiment was to determine whether a small amount of caffeine would have an effect on heart rate after a period of 5 minutes. We ran our trial by randomly selecting our 99 experimental subjects, and randomizing them into 2 groups. The first group was the control group, which consisted of 49 subjects who receibed 3 placebo, or non-caffeinated, mints. The second group consisted of 50 subjects who received 3 caffeinated mints, called Penguin mints, which have the same amount of caffeine as one can of cola. We first took each subject's heart rate and recorded the data. Then we gave the subject 3 mints, either caffeinated or non-caffeinated. We retested the subject's heart rate 5 minutes after they consumed the mints, and recorded the data. To begin our analysis, we subtracted the original heart rate from the ending heart rate of each subject to find the difference in heart rate. We then performed a two-sample t-test on our data to see whether the caffeine had a significant effect on the heart rates of the subjects. We can be 95% confident that our data was not due to chance alone. In conclusion, we found that caffeine does have an effect on heart rate.
Research Done By:
Erin Flannery
Cousino
Laura Iacona
Cousino
Warren Consolidated Schools