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Experiment No. 16

Question: How can you see your pulse?

Experiments: To examine your pulse rate.

Materials:

You will need:

A drinking straw,
play dough,
a stop watch,
a partner.

1. Feel with your fingertips on the inside of your wrist, below your thumb, until detect pulsations.

2. Place a piece of play dough at the place where you can feel pulsations most strongly.

3. Carefully push one end of the drinking straw into this blob so that it sticks upright from your wrist.

4. Let your arm lie flat on a table. The straw should twitch slightly to and fro, as the surge of blood produced by each heart-beat passes through your wrist into your hand.

5. Measure your pulse rate by counting the number of times the straw rocks in one minute.

Result:

Average pulse rate of sixth class pupils at rest =

Your pulse rate gives the general health of your heart rate. The throbbing pressure bulges of the pulse travel through all of the body’s arteries. The wrists are not the only places where you can feel them. The radial artery lies just below the skin and directly above the wrist bones.
There are several other sites where the pulse can usually be felt clearly, especially after you have been exercising.
Other pulse sites:
The neck, the crook of the elbow, the groin, the back of the knee, the front of the ankle.

Sixth Class Experiments