Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am doing a proj on mens deoderant to see how effective they really are. I am planning to take different kinds of deoderant and goin to apply them to a potato. I dont really know how to get started. Do you think you can help me ?

I have a couple questions for you.
1. Why are you using potatoes?
2. What are you planning to measure? How?
3. When you say "the effectiveness" do you mean how well they mask the scent of sweat?

If you said yes to 3, I wouldn't use potatoes because they don't really smell. Maybe you could get a friend to use the deodorants and see which deodorant masks the smell the most. I wouldn't use more than one person because everyone sweats a different amount of sweat.

I hope this helps!

Hi redtails13,
Welcome to Science Buddies!

First of all, in order to start with your project, you need to clearly establish your independent and dependent variables.
The questions Megara7 asked you are also fundamental in organizing your experiment.
I understand that your independent variable will be the different types of men deodorant. However, it is necessary that if you are going to test it on potatoes, what you are measuring and what standard will define the " effectiveness" of the specific deodorant.

I suggest you to check out this link: http://www.education.com/science-fair/a ... skin-type/
This article can be suitable for your experiment as it tests the different types of deodorants for certain skin types. In your experiment, you would modify the test subject.

I am not sure if potatoes will be appropriate as the subject unless it might have some similarities with the human skin type.

Also, it is noteworthy that you know the difference between a deodorant and an antiperspirant. An antiperspirant is a substance that is applied to the skin to prevent or reduce perspiration. On the other hand, a deodorant does allow the release of perspiration to a certain extent, but more importantly prevents odor by killing odor-causing bacteria.

I hope this helps and please feel free to ask any questions on this.
Good luck!

-Grace

THANK YOU SO MUCH grace and megara ! ur comments have helped me a lot and grace ur website also helped me a great deal ! THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!