How the muscle works

How Does The Muscle Work?
This lab is about the muscle contraction and how the body reacts to different experiences. With each experiment it will demonstrate what will happen when the body reacts to temperature and fatigue and show the effects to the muscle.
I hypothesis that temperature will slow my body down in forming a fist the first few seconds then will return to normal. After a few reps of squeezing a ball in my hand that it will slow down my reps also. I will attempt to prove that the temperature and fatigue will slow down the muscles contractions.

First experiment: the effect of temperature
I will form a fist for 20 seconds. After I record how many I did I will put my whole hand in an ice bowl for a minute then try again forming a fist for 20 seconds.
Temp----------number of fist
Normal--------44
Ice water------36

My hand in bowl of ice!

Second experiment: the effect of fatigue
I will count how many times I can squeeze a ball for 20 seconds and do it at least 10 times without stopping.
Reps number of times
One---------------45
Two--------------45
Three-------------45
Four--------------44
Five--------------43
Six----------------40
Seven-------------40
Eight -------------35
Nine---------------30
Ten----------------27

Squeezing a ball

ANALYSIS OF DATA:

1. What are the three changes you observed in a muscle while it is working (contracted)?
I was moving my flexor carpi and some of the extensor carpi muscle in both exercise. The flexor carpi muscle is in my wrist and hand that I was using to form a fist. With each fist I made I was also using some of my extensor carpi muscle, which is to straighten my wrist and hand. Each time I made a fist I was tightening my muscle.
2. What effect did the cold temperature have on the action of your hand muscles? Explain.

When I first put my whole hand in a bowl of ice water I knew it was going to be tuff because my hand was so cold in the first 15 seconds!! After my minute was up forming a fist was slow because my hand and fingers felt tight, then my hand started to get warm then it was back to normal in my last 5 seconds.

1. What are the three changes you observed in a muscle while it is working (contracted)?
Just like my first experiment I was using my flexor carpi and extensor carpi muscle. I noticed without stopping after my first 5 reps of squeezing a ball my wrist was getting tight and it was making it harder for my fingers to keep squeezing the ball.

2. What effect did fatigue have on the action of your hand muscles? Explain.
Without stopping after each reps my hand especially my wrist was getting tired and tight. The first few 20 seconds were okay but after 5 tries my wrist was getting tired and it was making it harder to keep squeezing the ball. My squeezes weren’t so tight because my fingers were getting tired.


Conclusion:
The brain sends signal to the nerve cells telling the muscle to contract. A muscle is a bundle of many cells called fibers. A muscle fiber contains many myofibrils, which are full of muscle proteins. Protein allows the muscle cell to move. The thick and thin filaments do the actual work of muscle movement.
After doing both experiments my body did have a reaction to temperature and fatigue. My hypothesis did come out correct. I knew that after my hand would warm up it would come back to normal and that after a few reps that my wrist would get tired.



http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1992/illpres/muscle-7.gif

This Image shows the steps on how the muscle contracts and is need to make it all work.

This image shows how the muscle works. The top image shows how the muscle is relax then what happens what its contract, if you notice the second image, it shows that the muscle gets tight when its contacted.