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Tennis Ball Lab - Cell Respiration

The document describes an experiment where students squeeze a tennis ball continuously for 10 seconds over 10 trials to test aerobic and anaerobic respiration. As the trials progress, the number of squeezes decreases as lactic acid builds up, causing muscle fatigue. Graphing the results together shows how muscle performance declines over time without oxygen.

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Daniel De La Cruz
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1K views2 pages

Tennis Ball Lab - Cell Respiration

The document describes an experiment where students squeeze a tennis ball continuously for 10 seconds over 10 trials to test aerobic and anaerobic respiration. As the trials progress, the number of squeezes decreases as lactic acid builds up, causing muscle fatigue. Graphing the results together shows how muscle performance declines over time without oxygen.

Uploaded by

Daniel De La Cruz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Activity:

TENNIS BALL versus AEROBIC & ANAEROBIC RESPIRATION

Purpose: To determine how long it takes for your muscles to become tired and full of lactic acid.

Materials: Tennis ball, a clock or watch, graph paper, pen/pencil

Procedure: Grab a partner. Each person will have one job. After you and your partner have finished, switch jobs with each other.
Each person should record their own data in a data table.

Jobs:

Squeezer
1. Grasp the tennis ball in your non-writing hand.
2. Squeeze the tennis ball without stopping for TEN seconds and count the number of squeezes. Stop when your partner is
finished counting. NEVER STOP SQUEEZING DURING THE DATA COLLECTION!!

Counter
1. Keep TIME for 10 seconds while your partner is squeezing.
2. Write that number in the table beside number 1.
3. Let your partner REST for 5 seconds than start again..
4. Go through the TEN trials CONTINUOUSLY for one partner. Once the trials are finished, then SWITCH.

Results/Data:
Table 1. The number of squeezes over time for: _____________________________

Counts Number of Squeezes Counts Number of


Squeezes
1 6
2 7
3 8
4 9
5 10

Table 2. The number of squeezes over time __________________________________

Counts Number of Squeezes Counts Number of


Squeezes
1 6
2 7
3 8
4 9
5 10
Once the data table is completed, graph your results TOGETHER as ONE graph.

NUMBER
of
Squeezes

10 Trials: BOTH people

Conclusion:
1. What happened to the number of squeezes over time?

2. How did your squeezing hand and arm feel towards the end of your squeezing-time period?

3. What did you notice about your breathing from when you started to when your finished.

4. When you work your muscles a lot in a short amount of time, your muscles cannot get the oxygen they need for aerobic
respiration. Instead, your muscles undergo anaerobic respiration and produce lactic acid. When the lactic acid builds up,
you get a burning sensation followed by pain in that muscle. With this information, answer the following questions:

A. By looking at your results, pinpoint when you first had a lot of lactic acid build up. How do you know?

B. How long does it take for the burning feeling to disappear?

C. Diagram the TWO different pathways of CELLULAR RESPIRATION and what the end products of each are:

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