Courtney was on the track team and wanted to test the effects of her diet on her race times. She decided to test high carbohydra

Question

17 days ago

15

Courtney was on the track team and wanted to test the effects of her diet on her race times. She decided to test high carbohydra

te meals and high protein meals for four weeks. She tested the effects by recording her 500 meter times one hour after each meal. For breakfast she had a high protein or high carbohydrate meal and for lunch, she would have the type of meal she did not select for breakfast. Some days she had her high protein meal in the morning and and other days she had her high protein meal at lunch. She began recording her results and noticed that no matter what meal she had, her times were always faster at lunch. She did notice a trend of slightly faster times after her high carbohydrate meals when compared to her protein meals for the same time of day; however, she was unsure of the true impact. What is a factor in Courtney's study that could result in misleading conclusions?

Biology

2 answers:

vlada-n [1.8K] · Answer 1 · 2026-03-12T07:29:30+03:00

I recently completed the USATestprep quiz with this question, and the right answer is Her speed appears to be influenced by the time of day; however, she intends to assess how the meal types affect her results.

I hope this is helpful!

By the way, I'm certain that’s the correct response.

vlada-n [1.8K] · Answer 2 · 2026-03-12T07:33:34+03:00

Response:

The relationship between the independent factors, namely a) Type of Diet and b) Time of Day, could result in misleading outcomes.

Clarification:

Courtney aimed to investigate the impact of her diet on her running times. However, while observing the effects of diet type, she inadvertently began to note the variations in "time of day" concerning "running times".

Initially, there was just one independent factor, which was "diet type," focused on its influence on the dependent variable "running time." Ultimately, two independent variables arose—

a) Type of Diet and b) Time of Day.

Due to her lack of understanding regarding the relationship between these two independent variables, it became challenging for Courtney to derive a definitive conclusion.