 your results
Sent in by:
Sarah of Brookline, MA
It's up to you: one point or two?
- 12 paper clips
- 8 index cards
- pen and paper for charting
- large pieces of paper for mapping
- markers or crayons
- a friend
- Can you feel what you can see? To find out if you can, make 8 different cards to test your sensitivity.
- Unbend 12 paperclips and tape them to index cards making sure that the unbent point sticks out at least 1/2" over the edge of the card.
- Make four cards with just one paperclip and four cards spacing two paper clips apart by 1/2 centimeter, one centimeter, two centimeters and three centimeters. (You will have a total of 8 cards.)
- Draw a chart for recording your results. In separate rows along the left side of your paper, write "upper arm", "forearm", "palm", and "fingertips". Across the top of your paper make two columns for each person. Above the left column for each person write the name and "right". Above the right column for each person write the name and "wrong".
- Before you begin testing, predict where you'll be the most sensitive and why.
- Close your eyes while your friend gently touches your arm with one of the cards.
- Guess whether the card has one or two points.
- Your friend records whether each guess is either right or wrong. He should also stack the cards in a right and a wrong pile.
- After you're done testing one area of the arm compare the right and wrong piles of cards. Do you see a pattern?
- Try testing on your fingertips, palms, forearms and upper arms to see which parts of your arms are the most sensitive. Be sure to mix up the order of the cards before you test each part of the arm.
- When your arm is done, switch roles and test your friend's arm.
- Then, compare your results. Which part of your arm felt more sensitive to touch while you were doing the experiment? Does this match your predictions? Were you both more sensitive in the same parts of your arms?
- Use your data to draw a map to make it easier to see which parts of your arm are more sensitive than others.
- Trace around your arm to make the outline for your map.
- Then use the number of right answers you got for each part of the arm as the basis for how sensitive they are.
- Decide which colors will represent which levels of sensitivity and then color your map accordingly.
Here's the sci scoop on why parts of your arm are more and less sensitive than other parts. Our skin has nerve endings that let our brains know when something is touching us. The paper clip points push on our skin and start a message going along the nerves to our brains. Some parts of our bodies have more nerve endings than others. Our upper arms don't have many nerve endings so when two points hit, they might only be hitting one nerve ending. So your brain thinks there's only one point. Our fingertips have lots of nerve endings. When two points hit, your brain gets two messages and thinks there's two points. When the points are farther apart, it's easier to hit two nerves. When they're close together, it's harder.
Are your arms more sensitive than your legs? What about the back of your neck? Make a map of your data and send your results to ZOOM.
Olivia, age 12 of NY wrote:
i did the: palm, forearm and finger tips. the finger tips were not sensitive mostly the fore arm was the most sensitive and the palm took in a little. but it worked and was a great science project and fun to do!
Cayli, age 11 of New Milford, PA wrote:
I tested the sesttivity tester on my dad and I. We each got different results! I thought we'd get the same. What if you did the same tester on your legs.
Zoe, age 10 of Lawerence, KS wrote:
It tickled when I did my toes.
Lily, age 12 of Boston, MA wrote:
The fingertips were the most sensitive and usually the upper arm and forearm were the least sensitive but some of mine and my friends' results were kind of "whacked out".
Renee, age 13 of Boston, MA wrote:
I did this experiment with my friend Lily and her siblings Eliza and Alex. Our results were that out fingertips were most sensitive and our palm is sorta sensitive. Weird thing was that my Alex's fore arm was sensitive and Lily and mines were less sensitive.
Mirae, age 11 of WA wrote:
I tested my 4 year old sister and her upper arm was the least sensitive, her fore arm was kind of sensitive, her palm was in the middle, and her fingertips were the most sensitive.
Mallory, age 7 of Coupertino, CA wrote:
My fingertips were the most sensitive, so I colored them red. I colored my palm orange with red stripes. It was the second most sensitive. Then I colered my upper arm orange (third sensitive) and my forarm green (not very sensitive).
Ashley, age 12 of South Meriden, CT wrote:
My sister, Melinda, and I did this activity. Melinda's most sensetive spot was her fingertips. She got them all right. Next, was her palm, she missed one. Then, was her forearm, she missed two. Finally, her upperarm was last, she missed three. My most sensetive spot was my palm. I got them all right. Next, was my fingertips, I missed two. Then, my forearm and upper arm tied with me missing two.
Jenna, age 10 of Elora, ON wrote:
Me and my friend Maddy tryed this zoomsci out. Maddy got pretty normal result but mine were weird. Her's were that her most sensetive were her finger Tips(8), palm(6), fore arm(5) and upper arm(1). My results were Finger Tips(7), Palm and Upper Arm(6) and Fore Arm(4).
Fatema, age 7 of North Hills, CA wrote:
When I did this experiment just for fun, I found out that my upper arm is the least sensitive while my fingertips are the most sensitive. I had a lot of fun doing this project because I had an interesting time trying to guess if it was one point or two points.
Sofia, age 10 of Newark, DE wrote:
When I tried the sensitivity tester I found out that the closer the paper clips the harder it is to tell if it is one or two.
Shelby, age 14 of Pottstown, PA wrote:
I tested this on both my parents and I found that the fingertips were the most sensitive and the forearm was the least sensitive.
Michelle, age 11 of Lake Forest, CA wrote:
My palm was the least sensetive. My upper arm and fingertips were the most sensetive.
La'An of NM wrote:
My fore arm and my palm are sensistive, but my fingers and arm aren't. Thanks for the great experiment!
Brittany, age 13 of Brooklyn, NY wrote:
I found out that my fingertips were more sensitive.
Lauren of Boston wrote:
My whole arm is not sensitive at all.
Brandon, age 5 of Richmond, VA wrote:
The neck, back and front of legs were sensitive.
Christian, age 10 of Circleville, OH wrote:
When I did the sensitivity tester I got some results that I never knew. The results I got were that my forearm and my fingertips were most sensitive.
Caitlyn, age 5 of Lexington, KY wrote:
My arm is more senstive.
Sami, Cady, Jessie and Sophie of CA wrote:
We tested everyone on arms, legs and head. The results were very interesting. It seemed on the head out of testing the forehead, cheeks, nose and chin that the chin was most sensitive. For the arms out of all you suggested the fingertips were most sensitive. And for the legs out of toes, top of foot, shin and knee the toes were most sensitive. Between us cousins it seemed that some of us were really sensitive while others were hardly sensitive. We loved experimenting and hope to do some more soon. Thank you!
Shantel, age 13 of White Plains, NY wrote:
I think the sensitivity tester has something to do with whin your older. I tested this experiment with my mom, dad, and myself. My dad is in his fortys and my mom is in her thirtys, and I'm in my teens. When we tested my dad's upper arm he got 2 right/ 3 wrong. FOREARM 3 right/ 2 wrong. PALM 5 right/ 0 wrong FINGERTIPS 4/1. My mom had upper arm 2/3 forearm 3/2 palm 5/0 fingertips 5/0. And I had upper arm 3/2, forearm 4/1, palm 5/0, finger tips 4/1. I not sure if my theory is correct, but I think it has something to do with how old you are. As you can tell from my data, my arm is more sensitive than my parents, and my dad's arm is not as sensitive. Maybe because my dad is muscler, or older, maby not.
Danielle, age 11 of Westland, MI wrote:
My upper arm was the worse and my fingertips was the best. This sci was cool because it was so much fun guessing if it was 1 or 2 pokes and seeing what my results were.
Michelle, age 10 of Carson, CA wrote:
I used my leg instead my arm. I did my upperleg, lowerleg, heel, toes, the bottom of your foot. The bottom of my foot was really sensitive, then the upperleg, lowerleg, toes, and the least sensitive was the heel.
Mackayla-Rose of Guelph, Ontario wrote:
When I tryed doing the sensitivity testing I chose to do my neck and my ancles. My ancle was kind of sensitive but my neck was the most sensitive but I have one qustion. Do you think my neck was more sensitive because it has monre nerves or do you think it was a different reason?
Amanda, age 12 of Belleville, MI wrote:
I tested my leg with my friend rachel and found that my toes are the most sensitive, my ankle area is the least, and my upper leg is the middle.
Mark, age 7 of Muscatine, IA wrote:
I discovered that for the arm, the fingertips did the best and the upper arm didnt do as well. I also discovered that for the leg, the toes did the best and the upper leg and shin did the same at 4 right and 4 wrong.
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