Jake's Science Fair Project

"The Effects of Smoking"

What Does Smoking Do To You ?  

    Every puff of a cigarette deposits a thin film of tar like substance on the tissues lining in your mouth lungs and throat. These tarry substances have been proven to cause cancer. 

    Poisons such as nicotine, arsenic trioxide, and radioactive chemicals like Polonium 210, are also present in cigarette smoke. These are all absorbed into the blood stream of smokers. Over time changes occur that can cause blood clots to form. Changes in breathing and the appearance of the lung tissue also occur so the smoker is more susceptible to colds, infections, and shortness of breath.  

Your Respiratory System.  

    When you inhale, air goes into your mouth and nose through your bronchial tubes and into your lungs. Your lungs are made up of ting air sacs called Alveoli. Your Alveoli are surrounded by tiny blood vessels called capillaries. When oxygen goes into the alveoli it is transferred to the capillaries and your heart pumps the oxygenated blood to all the cells of your body.  

 The Experiment

Purpose:        The purpose of my experiment is to see if non-smokers get as much air into their lungs         as smokers.  

Hypothesis:        I guess that smokers get the same amount of air into their lungs as non-smokers  

Materials:           The first thing you need is a breathing pump. You need a stopwatch to record the time of each subject and you need six subjects, three smokers and three non-smokers.  

Procedure:         1. First, you need three people that are smokers. They should all be about the same size, the same age, and the same sex. You get each person to blow into the breathing pump for as long as they can and record their time with a stopwatch. Each person should repeat this three times.  

                         2. Repeat the first step with three non-smokers.  

                        3. Record your results.  

Data 

Results               The data indicates that non-smokers are able to blow the breathing pump for twice as long as smokers.

Conclusion         Non-smokers have a larger lung capacity than smokers.  

Project Summary

1. How did I come up with the idea for my project?

I am getting renovations done on my house and I saw the worker smoking.

2. What did I learn from my experiment?

I learned that smokers have a smaller lung capacity than non-smokers.

3.How close were my my hypothesis and conclusion?

I was way off. I guessed that the smokers could hold it up as long as non-smokers.

4. What was the most interesting part of my project?

The most interesting part was learning that smokers have a smaller lung capacity.