Final answer:
The time per beat for a heart rate of 150 bpm is 0.4 seconds. A single cardiac cycle includes atrial contraction and ventricular relaxation, and knowing your HR during exercise ensures maintaining optimal cardiac output.
Step-by-step explanation:
If a student's heart rate (HR) is 150 beats per minute (bpm) during strenuous exercise, we can calculate the time per beat in seconds. To find the duration of a single cardiac cycle, we divide the number of seconds in a minute, which is 60, by the heart rate. Therefore, 60 seconds divided by 150 bpm equals 0.4 seconds per beat.
A single cardiac cycle refers to the period of time between the onset of atrial contraction (atrial systole) and ventricular relaxation (ventricular diastole). Knowing your heart rate during exercise can help you ensure that you stay within the target heart rate range to maintain optimal cardiac output (CO).