MadSci Network: Botany
Query:

Re: Which banana will ripen the fastest and why?

Date: Wed May 12 21:47:22 1999
Posted By: Matthew Barchok, Undergraduate
Area of science: Botany
ID: 926391260.Bt
Message:

The banana in the bag with a ripe banana will ripen fastest.
A paper bag is enough to keep most of the ethylene there.  This is 
because the molecular weight of ethylene is 14 - about the same as the 
average molecular weight of the molecules in the atmosphere.  Since it 
isn't lighter, it doesn't float up, and since it is not denser, it doesn't
sink to the floor.  The only thing moving it is disturbances in the air, 
such as those caused by someone walking past.  Since the disturbances don't
pass through the bag, most of the ethylene stays put.  So, the banana on
the shelf will ripen slower, because the ethylene gets blown away from the
banana.
When a fruit approaches maturity, it begins to produce ethylene gas.
This, as you know, causes the fruit to ripen.  I don't know the processes
that cause it to ripen, but I know it causes it to produce more ethylene.
Have you heard the saying "One bad apple spoils the barrel."?  If one 
apple in a barrel ripens, it gives off a lot of ethylene.  This makes the 
other apples ripen faster.  As most people have experienced, ripe fruits 
don't last too long.  If they are all green, they last for a long time.
Therefore, the banana in the bag with a ripe banana ripens fastest.
The unripe banana in the bag will ripen sometime in between.
This assumes that all of the unripe bananas are equally ripe to begin with.

Some tips:  If you do this experiment, and time and money allows, repeat it
a few times, recording how you did it each time.
You should take all the unripe bananas in one experiment from the same 
bunch.
Different rows of bananas (top to bottom OR left to right) might be 
SLIGHTLY riper than the others.  Take them off the bunch in an organized
manner, and record how you did it each time. Maybe even label the bananas.
To test which may be riper, you could take an unripe bunch, record how
you took them off the bunch, and lablel each banana.  Separate them, and
put each in a bag by itsself.  Then you may see in which order they ripen.
There might not be a big difference, in which case it might not matter.
If the difference is small, you can do the experiment with any bananas in
the bunch.  If there is a big difference, you would have to take them off
the bunch in a specific pattern.
Write down everything, but come up with a simple conclusion, just telling 
which of the three bananas ripens fastest, and the reason why you think it
happened that way.

This would be an awesome science fair project or school project.

If a fruit is too immature, it never produces ethylene, and doesn't ripen.
They might ripen if put in a bag with a ripe fruit.  That would be an 
interesting experiment.

Good luck!


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