3. Problem Statement
There are many Gatorade and Powerade commercials that claim
each hydrates an athlete better than water. We wanted to be able
to determine whether water, powerade, or gatorade allows you to
perform better.
4. Background Gatorade
Gatorade helps to “rapidly replace the fluids and electrolytes lost
through sweat, and provide energy for active muscles." This rapid
recovery helps to prevent dehydration in athletes during vigorous
exercise.
One main quality of Gatorade is that it has a good taste to
promote hydration. Water has pretty much no taste, and as a
result doesn’t really encourage you to drink more.
Gatorade’s taste and electrolytes promote consumption
psychologically.
Consuming Gatorade prevents dehydration and helps improve
reaction times.
According to Craig A. Horswill, sports drinks should contain
around 6% carbohydrates. That is the exact amount of
carbohydrates that Gatorade contains.
5. Background Powerade
Powerade is by far the less popular, compared to Gatorade.
They sold about 1 billion bottles of powerade according to last
year’s revenue report.
The “Ion Series” provides a remarkable blend of 4 essential
elements, Sodium, Potassium, Magnesium, and Calcium.
This drink has nearly half the sugar of Gatorade.
Powerade provides 4 essential minerals compared to Gatorade’s
3.
6. Hypothesis
Our hypothesis is that Gatorade will help us perform better on the
reaction test than anything else.
7. Variables
Manipulated – Different fluids that we drank to rehydrate (Water,
Powerade, Gatorade)
Dependent – Improved time
Controlled – Amount of calories per run, volume of liquid, rest
between sets, same reaction test.
8. Materials
Measuring Cup
Eliptical
Gatorade 500mL
Water 500mL
Powerade 500mL
Computer to take time test
9. Method
1. Drink 250 mL of water
2. Take reaction test
3. Run long enough that you burn 50 calories
4. Drink 250 mL of water
5. Take reaction test
6. Wait 5 minutes then repeat with Gatorade and Powerade
10. Results
Water Gatorade Powerade
Baseline .3504 .3504 .3504
After .3239 .3102 .311
Improvement .0265 .0402 .0394
15. Observations/Error Analysis
We made sure to use calories to measure how much energy was
exhausted instead of time because the intensity level could
change with time.
We did all of the experiments one after the other. So, Ben’s
fatigue could have effected the end results
Measurements weren’t exactly the same everytime.
16. Conclusion
Our hypothesis was right and Gatorade did in fact help to improve
our performance more than any other fluid.
