A common culinary trait in America today is the Five Second Rule, which is the idea that states that food does not collect bacteria if it is picked up within five seconds. However, do different circumstances affect the amount of bacteria that is collected? This experiment observes which foods attract the most bacteria depending on which surface it was tested on. The food items, which already had bacteria from being handled, were pressed against one side of a petri dish, dropped, and pressed against the other side in order to compare the amount of bacteria before and after being dropped. The amount of bacteria was measured by counting the number of bacterial colonies after incubating the plates for about 74 hours at 90° Fahrenheit. My first
