Testing the 5 Second Rule

Does The 5 Second Rule Exist?

During the course of this experiment, I tested bacteria on 4 different types of food. My goal in this experiment was to see if the 5 second rule actually exists. My hypothesis was that the 5 second rule does actually exist. I chose this topic because the 5 second rule is very common in schools everywhere. The 5 second rule happens every day and I thought it would be interesting to find out if it is real or fake.

In order to complete this experiment, I purchased a bacteria testing kit. The Kit supplied me with ten petri dishes and swabbers. I used four different foods for this experiment. I used a cookie, a dorito, lettuce, and a fruit rollup. I collected a clean sample and a dirty sample of each food. The clean sample is the control in this experiment. The dirty sample was left on the floor for 5 seconds. For the swabbing you must dip the swabber into distilled water than rub it on the food. First I swabbed a clean cookie and a cookie that has been dropped on the floor for 5 seconds. In spread the samples on two separate petri dishes. One for the dirty sample and on for the clean sample. I did the same thing for the lettuce, Dorito, and fruit rollup. I put the samples under the incubator over the weekend. When I came back on Monday I saw the results.

I looked at the results and there was a significant difference between the amount of bacteria in the clean food sample and the dirty food sample. I noticed that the lettuce had significantly more bacteria than the rest of the foods. I think that the lettuce picks up more bacteria because it is moist. I measured the results by placing the plates on graph paper and counting how many squares the graph paper covers. The lettuce had the most bacteria (about 70 squares), the cookie had the second most (about 40 squares), the dorito had the third most ( about 25 squares), and the fruit roll up had the least ( about 15 squares). The black spots on the cookie sample are mold.

In conclusion I believe that the five second rule exists and should be taken seriously. The bacteria shown on the plates will make you sick. My hypothesis was proven correct because there was a notable difference between the clean sample and the sample that has been on the floor for 5 seconds. My experiment was accurate. If there was a possible source of error it would be in counting the bacteria. I could improve or change the experiment by making more foods to test or testing different surfaces. In conclusion, the 5 second rule does exist.

Graph:

Data Table: