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Nothing To Sneeze At

When people tell you to cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze, they are trying to protect others around you from breathing in your germs. When you sneeze, the micro-organisms move outwards from your mouth and nose in all directions. This experiment will give you an idea of how covering your mouth may effect how the airborne germs travel.

What you need:

• Balloons

• Tire pump

• Chalk

• Pin

• Confetti

• Tape Measure

• String

• Funnel
   

What to do:

• Use a funnel to place a handful of confetti in a deflated balloon.

• Blow the balloon up as full as possible using a tire pump.

• Stand in the middle of the room, mark your position with the chalk.

• Using a piece of chalk tied to the end of the string draw a circle with a radius of 20cm.

• Repeat drawing circles with a radius of 40cm, 60cm, and 80cm.

• Return to your original standing position and pop the balloon with a pin.

• Count the number of confetti pieces that fell inside each circle.

• Record your findings on a piece of paper.

• Graph the results.

• Repeat the experiment holding a large piece of paper in front if the balloon before you pop it.

• Record your results and compare to the original experiment.

Where did the most confetti land?
Were the pieces of confetti evenly distributed?

What effect did the paper held in front of the balloon have of the confetti distribution?

How do you think this is similar to the passage of germs?