Question

1. What area of the body had the greatest density of sweat glands, based on your experimental results? What area had the lowest? Why do you think this is?

2. If you were to perform this same test on a friend, do you believe their results would be similar or different to yours? Why or why not?

3. Which region was most sensitive to in the sensory receptor test? Which was least sensitive?

4. Can you think of an advantage to having a greater distribution of touch receptors in the area that you found to be most sensitive?

5. Was there a difference between the measurements of the left and right side of the body? Why or why not?

Answer 1

1. The area of the body with the greatest density of sweat glands are the palms and soles of the feet whereas that with lowest density is the back of the body.  This is because the palms and the soles are always involved in activities and the heat produced by the soles and palms exceeds the heat released by the body. As a result their temperature frequently rises above the normal body temperature. This frequent rise in temperature resulted in adaptation of palms and soles to have more sweat glands to sweat and cool the areas and there is more blood flow to the skin causing palms and soles to look flushed. On the contrary, back of the body is very rarely involved in physical activities and thus have least number of sweat glands.