How Gross Are Your Electronics?
Why washing your hands is more important than you think
The Experiment
What were we testing?
How much bacteria is on the surface of the school issued iPads and on the average high schoolers cell phone.
Hypothesis
The cell phone is going to have more bacteria on it than the iPad.
Materials Needed
- Cell phone
- iPad
- 1 Nutrient Agar plate
- 2 Sterile cotton swabs
The Procedure
1) Gather the materials
2) Swab the surface of the phone
3) Swab the surface of iPad
4) Place samples on Agar Plate
5) Allow bacteria to grow
6) Take pictures of samples
Front Side of Dish
1 is the bacteria found on the iPad and 2 is the bacteria found on the iPhone. As you can see, the bacteria found on the phone is much larger than that on the iPad.
Back Side of Dish
This picture provides a better angle of the bacteria found on the iPhone, and the dark collection of bacteria is actually mold.
Test Subjects
This is the iPhone and iPad that we tested.
so what's the point?
The important lesson to learn from this experiment is that washing your hands thoroughly is very important, because bacteria builds up quickly on the devices we use every day. We took two test subjects who claim that they wash their hands frequently, and the results we found led us to believe that hand washing might be necessary anytime after you would use either of these devices. Just like a toilet seat or a door handle, electronic devices have a surface that collects undetectable bacteria and germs that can make you sick. So, not only is it important for you to wash your hands, but also to carefully clean and disinfect your devices frequently!