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And I don't mean as an ice cream type of dish. This question came up after reading Life of Pi (if you've read the book, you know what I mean), and I really had no idea. I tried to find the answer online, but Yahoo Answers said "no" due to the density of a banana being more than that of water. I've learned not to trust Yahoo Answers, though. Once Sunny finished the book too, we were both curious enough to bother to try and float a banana. In our sink.
Pressing Question: Does a banana float?
We were thinking that when people said no it didn't, that was for fresh water. Of course, Pi Patel is stranded out on the ocean, which is salt water, and things float better in salt water. Look at people float in the Dead Sea! So, if our banana didn't float in the sink, we were prepared to add some salt.
Hypothesis: It might be too heavy to float in fresh water, but maybe not salt water. (See, we can be scientific!)
Methods: The banana was purchased at Loblaws as part of a bunch of 3. It wasn't quite ripe yet. We only tried to float one banana.
The bathroom sink was filled with about a finger's depth of water (5-8cm). We figured that was enough to float a banana, if it floated. Sunny would be the one to do the honors of putting the banana in the water and I was camera-woman.
Results: Note the shadow! (it's not sitting on the bottom)
Discussion: Yahoo Answers people don't know what they're talking about. And not many people that we could tell actually bothered to try and float a banana. I did find some directions for a science experiment, though, so it might be fun to try teaching "sinking" vs "floating" to a little kid or some grade school students.
Conclusion: A banana does indeed float! And in freshwater, no less.
My curiosity is satisfied, as is the 4th grade science teacher in me. LOL
Not at all related to bananas, I was pleasantly surprised to find this little blurb in the Red Eye today (pg 15). I guess there was a yabusame tournament in Zushi, probably on Sunday.
Other articles on the tournament from this past weekend:
Japanese archers carry on mounted samurai tradition by Eric Talmadge
Find more lovely pictures on Yabusame.or.jp's english site for events throughout the year.
I remember Sunny telling me about Towada city having some sort of yabusame demonstration every year, but I can't remember what time of year that was (August, maybe, around the time of their sumo and city festival?). I never got to see it because I wasn't ever in Towada on the right date. I never heard of Misawa City doing anything like that, but Towada is known for horses, so I guess it makes a bit more sense to have yabusame there.
For the curious: 流鏑馬 【やぶさめ】 (n) horseback archer (from Jim Breen's)
I hope to spot more J-culture stuff in the Red Eye; that'd be awesome!
In other news, school is school and I am sick. Boo.
- Location:The Plaines
- Mood:
amused - Music:TV upstairs
Comments
Maybe peeled bananas sink? ;)
However, peeled bananas wouldn't have made an appearance in Life of Pi like that anyway, so we didn't feel the need to test it out. :P
Do they have these tournaments/festivals in Zushi several times a year? The article I linked to in that post said the images were from a festival held in November.
I don't think they have it in Zushi several times a year; the other events on the yabusame page are from other locations.
I read Life of Pi, too, and it never occurred to me to question whether or not bananas float.
Mind you I'm not quite sure where the seeds are in a bananna possibly making my answer completely BS
I thought the seeds were rather small, like kiwi, but I was mistaken. According to ABC Great Moments in Science, Banana Fruit and Tree, the yellow banana we eat is a mutation from about 1000 years ago and is sterile. Other bananas that we don't eat have seeds.
thislast year.Edited at 2009-01-07 02:25 am (UTC)