Watch this mask vs. no mask showdown!

As the COVID-19 quarantine has dragged on, and on, and on ... (Seriously, hang in there, everyone—we're super proud of you) ... we've all been asking a lot of questions about a particular article of protective clothing.

Masks!

Should we all be wearing them? In what situations? How well do they work? Are homemade ones as effective as professionally-made ones?

The answers to those first two questions are now pretty known. Yes, we should be wearing masks to help stop the spread of COVID. And masks are most important both inside buildings such as stores and other public areas, and anywhere you cannot easily maintain social distancing of at least two metres (6 feet).

But the last two questions—especially the one about the effectiveness of homemade masks—are a bit harder to answer.

Fortunately, the duo known as AsapSCIENCE took it upon themselves to answer those questions for us with, you guessed it, science!

Cough, sneeze, speak, sing

In their experiment, the pair held petri dishes about a foot and a half away from their faces and performed the same four tasks—coughing, sneezing, speaking, and singing. And they did each of these things twice. Once without a mask and once with one. They also got help from experts at the University of Toronto to duplicate their experiment, just to be sure the results were accurate.

And, to complete the experiment, the mask that they used was a homemade one, similar to ones that many of us are using.

What did they find? Click the video below to find out. And if you're a fan of wearing masks, you'll be pleased with what they conclude!