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Faith Blower

Mrs. Stevens

Life Science

21 February 2020

Does Music Affect Your Time While Driving On An Obstacle Course?

Research shows that teens with music playing while driving a vehicle committed serious

safety errors ( )​. ​Since Music can affect an individual's focus, I thought if it can affect your focus

then maybe it can affect your focus while driving. For my experiment I chose to have 10 people

drive through an obstacle course while listening to music to observe if it affected their driving.

Music makes people lose their focus because it plays with one’s emotions. ​I thought that if you

play different types of music genres while driving through an obstacle course, then the driver

will have a faster speed depending on which genre was played.

Does the Speed Affect Accuracy on an Obstacle Course? Why or Why not?

According to “The Physics of Speeding” your speed does affect your accuracy. While

driving in an obstacle course accuracy is very important, therefore your speed does matter.

Obstacle courses are all about hard obstacles you have to go through. Those obstacles

involve stopping, turning and going up hills. Your speed does matter because it determines

how fast you go through the obstacle (Mischa).

How Does Music Impact Focus?

Music impacts your focus while driving by playing with your emotions. Depending

on the different music you listen to, it changes your feelings. Music can also change your

heart rate. In movies, for example, they change the music background to change your
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emotions. Scary and upbeat can change your heart rate and then your feelings which then

changes your focus. The volume of the music also impacts your focus. If you are driving

with the music loud and your zoned in then you could increase your speed and you can

miss a turn or a light. According to “How music affects your driving” some artists are

“dangerous” to listen to (How).

How Are Obstacle Courses Judged?

Most Obstacle courses are judged by your speed but depending on the type of

obstacle course it could be judged differently. Most driving obstacles are based on your

time through it and not much on your skills on how to go through it. Short obstacle courses

are usually 30 seconds to 1 minute. To time the obstacle course on uses stopwatches or

timers. For example, in car races each car has qualified in the race. This is when a driver

drives about a one mile obstacle as fast as they can. To time they use a stopwatch.

“Obstacle Course Facts for Kids” has multiple facts on different obstacles saying that all

obstacles are different (Obstacles).

How Do You Effectively Set Up an Obstacle Course?

Depending on what type of obstacle course you're setting up the number of

obstacles varies. Whether it's an obstacle created for an army drill, a vehicle or a team

sport the obstacle number of obstacles will be different. Obstacle courses in general

usually have at least five different obstacles if the obstacle courses were made to be a

challenge. Obstacles should have a variety of drills. For a vehicle obstacle course it should

have turns, hills, straight areas, u-turns, and other things to test the capacity of the vehicle..

“Obstacle Course for Kids” shared facts on obstacles but doesn’t share how to, therefore
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one can make an obstacle course however one wants (Obstacle).

Why Were Obstacle Courses Invented?

Obstacles were invented by a Frenchman at first for military uses. The obstacles

were designed to test the physical ability of the military. He called it the “Natural Method”.

It then made its way to America and America used it for their military. It eventually was

made into games and competitions (Sattler).

How Long Are the Average Obstacle Courses?

All obstacle courses are different depending on who or what’s going through them.

The level the person or thing is capable of doing affects how long you would design an

obstacle course. The average obstacle course is a few minutes whether the obstacle course

is long or repetitive. Obstacles should have quite a few obstacles to go through. There really

is no average time for an obstacle course because they are all different (Why).

Conclusion

I thought that if you play different types of music genres while driving through an

obstacle course, then you will have a faster speed depending on which genre you played and I

found that I was right. ​On average the drivers complete the obstacle course while listening to

instrumental music in 33 sec, while listening to rock in 28 sec, and with no music in 33 sec.

When drivers get zone in the confident music they get a boost that makes them drive more

aggressively and faster. Slower and more calming music calms you down and makes you calm

and slower. When drivers listen to no music their emotions aren’t as strong and powerful as

when they listen to music.

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Works Cited

“How Music Affects Your Driving.” ​How Music Affects Your Driving​, Apr. 2019,

www.nononsense.ie/a-load-of-facts/How-Music-Affects-Your-Driving/​.

Mischa, “The Physics of Speeding Cars.” ​Curious,​ 18 Jan. 2018,

www.science.org.au/curious/technology-future/physics-speeding-cars​.

“Obstacle Course Facts for Kids.” ​Wikt:Obstacle,​ Oct. 2019, kids.kiddle.co/Obstacle_course.

“Why Are Obstacle-Course Races So Popular?” ​The Atlantic​, Atlantic Media Company, 16 July
2018,
www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/07/why-are-obstacle-course-races-so-popular/5
65130/​.