• Question: what is the best mask.

    Asked by ShaneC on 17 Nov 2021. This question was also asked by EmilyV& rebeccap, LornaG, gracem.
    • Photo: Cyrille Thinnes

      Cyrille Thinnes answered on 17 Nov 2021:

      Masks depend on the environment they are worn in. For everyday use, I prefer the surgical masks as they provide adequate protection, they are light, breathable, and easy to handle.

    • Photo: Henry Darch

      Henry Darch answered on 17 Nov 2021:

      The mask with the most filtering capability is the N95/FPP3 mask (they’re not exactly the same, but N95 is mostly used in America, whereas FPP3 is in Europe).

      The design of these masks is actually very special. It’s more complicated than just the size of the holes in the mask material or the number of layers. They use static electricity to trap particles that are smaller than the holes in their fabric!
      When worn correctly, these masks can filter out 95% of particles between 0.1 and 0.3 microns big (that’s 500x smaller than the thickness of hair!).

      I recommend this YouTube video that nicely explains how N95 mask work with nice illustrations (also the channel is great for all sorts of other physics topics!):- https://youtu.be/eAdanPfQdCA

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