EXPERIMENT IDEA

My blog's been pretty dead with "hello world" being my most productive post so far... and other people have so many entries...and they look so pro...depressed...BUT ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, i've come up with an idea for SRP (with help from miss zhang's email help thingy) yay!

WHETHER/HOW MUCH SIGHT AFFECTS A PERSON'S BALANCE

So I don't mean like walk across the beam blindfolded because then yes, it obviously affects your ability to do so (and i dont want my subjects to die).... I'm thinking more along the lines of whether it affects the balance of a person while they're stationary. So here's my idea for the experiment.

Aim: To observe whether/how much sight affects a person's ability to balance while stationary.

Hypothesis: A person with an obstructed sense of sight will find it more difficult to balance as opposed to a person who has clear sight.

Equipment: heavy blindfold, eye patch, 30 subjects (with varying abilities to balance eg. ballet dancers and unco people), low stool, timer

Method:
1. Find a flat-surfaced area to conduct the experiment.
2. Get the subject to stand in the tree position and time how long they can stay in that position.
3. Blindfold the subject and repeat step 2.
4. Remove the blindfold and place an eyepatch over the subject's right eye and repeat step 2.
5. Place eyepatch over the subject's left eye and repeat step 2.
4. Record results, noting whether they may be better at balancing naturally (eg ballet dancer)
5. Repeat steps 2 - 4, except instead of the tree position, have the subject balance on one lef on a low stool.
6. Repeat steps 2 - 5 with all other subjects

So I tried to get positions that were not too easy, not too hard to get more accurate results for the aim. Tried them out in my living room but not sure how reliable I am with my not-so-great balancing skills.

OH AND VARIABLES
independent variable: conditions under which subject is being tested. eg position, blindfolded or not etc...
dependent variable: how long the subject can stay in a position

I will most definitely be changing the experiment around once I try it out on my subjects (VOLUNTEERS? I have cookies :)) to try and get better results. Also change wording of a few things - had several mental blanks while writing this.

REALISATION: how these blog thingies are being marked. oh god. SCIENCE IS EVIL.