Sarah Alnaif

The Effect of Type of Music on Plant Growth

independent variable: type of music

dependent variable: plant growth

In the 1970s a well-known study performed by Dorothy Retallack at the Colorado Woman's College in Denver using the college's three Biotronic Control Chambers. There was one chamber where music would play daily for three hours, and for another it was played for eight hours a day. In the three hour chamber, the plants grew twice as large as the chamber with no music, but in the chamber where music was played for eight hours a day, the plants died within two weeks.

The types of music used were rock music and soothing music. Rock music made the plant made the plants small and unhealthy while the soothing music made them grow large and healthy. They actually grew towards the radio almost like it was the sun.

This was a good experiment because it gave both the chamber the exact same whereas some would have gotten more sunlight in others. The experiment could be improved by using more types of music like country. The could be many follow-ups to this experiment. For example, put plants in different conditions.

• the same plant types across the different conditions
• a variety of species, also across the different conditions
• strict controls on all other external factors, e.g. light, warmth, etc
• consistency of human interaction across the different conditions
• music vo,ume would need to be maintained at a consistent level

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