Five-Second Rule Research Paper

My idea for a science project is to investigate whether “the five-second rule” is true or not. I decided on this project after my mom took a microbiology class and became obsessive with germs and bacteria. She is constantly telling me to wash my hands and not to eat food that has fallen on the floor. I want to see if my mom’s theory is accurate. During this background research paper, I will cover past similar research experiments, as well as explain the concept of my project and why the results are important in everyday life.
You are about to eat a piece of candy that slips out of your hand and falls onto the floor. If you are the kind of person who trusts “the five-second rule,” you would pick it up and eat it. On the other hand, if you think it is instantly contaminated after it touches the ground, you would throw it immediately in the trash. Previous experiments would test “the five-second rule,” by dropping the food on the floor and using a stopwatch. They would test one time above five seconds. The second time they would test less than five seconds. They would swab the food onto a petri dish and wait for bacteria to grow. After a few days, the results showed both petri dishes grew bacteria whether the food was less than five seconds or more than five seconds. …show more content…
This bacteria is considered dangerous and causes 1.4 billion people to get sick each year. Bacteria are singled celled organisms that can cause many kinds of illnesses. After research, experts know that bacteria will form on food, no matter how long it stays on the ground. Microbiologists would study the types of bacteria that form on the food and decide if it would be too dangerous to eat this type of bacteria that grew. The studies performed by the microbiologists are usually done in laboratories using an incubator to help speed the growth of the bacteria if it indeed does exist on the dropped