Lung capacity of smokers and non-smokers

Suppose our guess is  “ the lungs of smokers do not function as well as the lungs of non-smokers.”

Now we will have to test if our guess is right or wrong.
To test the functioning of lungs in smokers and non-smoker we can do an experiment.
For this experiment you will require:

 ●       water

●       One large (5 litre) plastic bottle or container,

●       A bucket in which the plastic bottle can comfortably fit.

●       Rubber or plastic pipe of about 2 metre

●       250 ml cylinder or beaker (to measure)

●       Small strips of paper

●       Tape

To do this test

1. Take the 5 litre bottle and the measuring cylinder. Fill up the measuring cylinder with 250 ml water. Pour the water into the plastic bottle. Mark the water level with a marker and write 250 ml near it. If you do not have a marker, you can write 250ml on a small piece of paper and stick it on the bottle near the water level. You can use tape to stick the paper on the plastic bottle.

2. Use the measuring cylinder to add 250 ml water again, and mark the new water level just like you had done previously.
   Write 500 ml near the water level.

3. Continue adding water and marking the water level in
   the same manner till you fill up 5 litres of water (5000ml)

4. Fill a bucket with water. Keep in mind that it must
   have enough room left to accommodate the added
   water from your plastic bottle

5. Hold your hand tightly over the mouth of the bottle
   and turn it upside down in the bucket. Remove your hand when the mouth of the bottle is below the water. Note that the plastic bottle should be completely filled when you put it in the bucket. If some water goes out of the bottle when you are putting it inside the bucket, tilt the plastic bottle a little so that water can go inside it.

6. Place one end of the plastic tubing into the mouth of the bottle.

7. Clean the free end of the tube.

8.  Now to test how much air your can lungs hold, take a deep breath- as deep as you can  and hold your nose closed, and exhale as much as you can into the tube in one go.

9. As you start exhaling in the pipe, you will see that the air goes into the plastic bottle.
   

10. After exhaling, note the mark to which air is filled in the plastic bottle.

11. The value near the mark will represent your lung capacity.

12. You can ask some people who smoke to take this test and note their lung capacities. Then you can ask some people who do not smoke to take the test and you can note their lung capacities also.

Note your observations in your notebooks. You can make a table for your observations also.