1. What is your hypothesis?
If someone wears nail polish, then the accuracy of the pulse oximeter will decrease.
2. Identify the dependent (produced), independent (manipulated) and control variables in your hypothesis.
The independent variable is the color of the nail or the type of artificial nail.
The dependent variable is the accuracy of the pulse oximeter.
The control is the colors of the nail, thickness, the person volunteering for the experiment, and the type of pulse oximeter used.
3. What is the connection between your science fair project and your senior project EQ?
The connection is that Biomedical Engineers have to know how different medical equipment works. All hospitals must have a pulse oximeter of some kind and this will allow me to start to realize how to learn about something in the field and gain an understanding if I get into the field.
4. How will you perform the experiment? Include the equipment you plan on using.
I will try to perform the experiment by first checking accuracy with regular nails and using that as a starting base. Then I will ask volunteers to wear different shades of nail polish and then using a finger probe to measure the oxygen saturation within the blood. I will then do the experiment a third time using artificial nails. I plan on using several colors of nail polish, artificial nails, a patient monitor which shows the pulse and oxygen saturation of a patient, and a finger probe.
5. Which category will your project be listed under? (For a full list of categories, go to the iPoly Physics webpage, then to the Science Fair tab.)
It will go under physics because I am experimenting about spectrographic readings.
