Normal Distribution and Standard Deviation
Student Exploration: Sight vs. Sound Reactions
Vocabulary: histogram, mean, normal distribution, range, standard deviation, stimulus
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
Most professional baseball pitchers can throw a fastball over 145 km/h (90 mph). This gives the batter less than half a second to read the pitch, decide whether to swing, and then try to hit the ball. No wonder hitting a baseball is considered one of the hardest things to do in sports!
1. What are some things in your life you must react to quickly? You need to react quickly when you are in danger, and you need to get away. You also need to react quickly when you are in a car so you don’t get hurt
2. In general, do you think you have quick, slow, or average reactions? I think I have relatively quick reactions, because when I am in a car, I can react to things very fast and when there are things that happy quickly, I can follow them.
Gizmo Warm-up
A stimulus is something that can cause you to react. A stimulus can be something you see (visual stimulus), something you hear (auditory stimulus), something you touch (tactile stimulus), or something you smell (olfactory stimulus). In the Sight vs. Sound Reactions Gizmo™, you will compare your reactions to visual and auditory stimuli.
To start, check that the Test is Sight. Click the Start button. When you see a red circle, immediately click your mouse. Take the test until the results appear.
1. The Time from each event is the time (in seconds) between when the symbol appears and when you clicked the mouse. This is your reaction time.
What was your best reaction time? 0.2490 seconds
2. The mean (μ) of a data set is a measure of the average value in the set.
What is the mean of your data set? 0.3156 seconds
3. In many cases, the results of a test follow a normal distribution, or a bell-shaped curve.
Select the GRAPH tab. Is this graph shaped like a bell? no
Activity A:
Vocabulary: histogram, mean, normal distribution, range, standard deviation, stimulus
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
Most professional baseball pitchers can throw a fastball over 145 km/h (90 mph). This gives the batter less than half a second to read the pitch, decide whether to swing, and then try to hit the ball. No wonder hitting a baseball is considered one of the hardest things to do in sports!
1. What are some things in your life you must react to quickly? You need to react quickly when you are in danger, and you need to get away. You also need to react quickly when you are in a car so you don’t get hurt
2. In general, do you think you have quick, slow, or average reactions? I think I have relatively quick reactions, because when I am in a car, I can react to things very fast and when there are things that happy quickly, I can follow them.
Gizmo Warm-up
A stimulus is something that can cause you to react. A stimulus can be something you see (visual stimulus), something you hear (auditory stimulus), something you touch (tactile stimulus), or something you smell (olfactory stimulus). In the Sight vs. Sound Reactions Gizmo™, you will compare your reactions to visual and auditory stimuli.
To start, check that the Test is Sight. Click the Start button. When you see a red circle, immediately click your mouse. Take the test until the results appear.
1. The Time from each event is the time (in seconds) between when the symbol appears and when you clicked the mouse. This is your reaction time.
What was your best reaction time? 0.2490 seconds
2. The mean (μ) of a data set is a measure of the average value in the set.
What is the mean of your data set? 0.3156 seconds
3. In many cases, the results of a test follow a normal distribution, or a bell-shaped curve.
Select the GRAPH tab. Is this graph shaped like a bell? no
Activity A: