Does the 5 second rule actually work?

My project(Does the 5-Second Rule Work) investigates whether the popular belief that food dropped on the floor is safe to eat if picked up within five seconds is true or not.
Mariam Ali
Grade 7

Presentation

No video provided

Hypothesis

Yes, I believe that the 5 second rule is true because for one I’ve been doing this all my life and two I don't believe that the germs have enough time to get on the food, But we will see in the end!

Research

Religion: Many religions forbid wasting or throwing out food.

In Islam we believe that if a piece of food falls on the ground you blow on it 3 times and say “Bismillah”.

This has different types of logic behind it:

  1. Blowing on something makes some of the pieces that are  stuck to it fly away.  
  2. Similarly, if one breathes on food  their breath has a lot of saliva on it so sometimes it makes some germs on it. 
  3. In the religion of Islam if one says the word “Bismillah” or “In the name of God” one says it  before doing something such as eating it is also a form of protection.

Variables

Independent Variables: Are the cotton swabs that make the germs form due to the swabbing.

Dependent Variables: Are the germs inside the petri dish because they are changing throughout the experiment.

Controlled Variable: Is the surface that I used because it stays the same the entire time.

Procedure

Experiment #1: To test whether the the five second rule works I bought petri trays, agar, and cotton swabs. Then I got an apple, and dropped it on three different surfaces for five seconds picked up the food and dabbed it with the cotton swab then put all the germs onto the petri dish then waited a few days(3-5).

Experiment #2:The two experiments are very similar but unlike the first, this experiment is more related to islam and not wasting food. In our religion we believe that if a piece of food falls on the ground instead of throwing it away you blow on the piece 3 times and say “bismillah (in the name of god)” then eat it. So I put this to the test, I got pieces of food on one I said “bismillah” and blew on it 3 times and just picked up the other then I swabbed them both and waited a few days.

 

Observations

While I was doing the experiment I realized that the agar that was in the petri dish was jiggly or squishy which was a shock to me because I was expecting something more hard, Then I noticed that there was not a lot of progress on the Petri trays for the germs growing until the very last day, and I was also expecting that there was going to be more germs but I ended up only finding a lot less germs than I thought.

Analysis

I compared the three surfaces and the one that had the most germs was the dirtiest one which was expected but when I compared the two petri dishes inthe bismillah project they were both the same.

Conclusion

As I said in my observation that I was expecting a lot more germs than I  thought but I think that it definitely depends what type of surface and petri dish that you're going to be using and also I figured out that for the Bismillah project that it doesn't really have a difference between the two that much because I think that it's more a religious perspective and blowing on it doesn't make a big difference. So in conclusion, as long as your surface is mostly clean I can say that THE 5 SECOND RULE ACTUALLY WORKS!

 

 

Application

Since the expiriment worked I would apply the 5 second rule in my life as long as I have a clean or normall surface.

Sources Of Error

1. This is a very safe project but there is a possibility that I could get affected by the germs, I could inhale some harmful substances, or I could get burned or cause a fire because of the candles that are going to be around the project.

2. This is a very safe project but there is a possibility that I could breath into the petri dishes, open them incorrectly, or even drop them while i’m doing the experiment or the entire experiment could fail by none of the germs showing up by not giving them enough time to form.

 

Acknowledgement

I would like to acknowledge my teacher Ms. Salih,Nigla and my family for supporting me along the way and my friend Linah Hatri for giving me alot of feedback and resources that could help me.