Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Spittin' for Science
Shelley, who scoops up all our seed spitting data each summer and sweeps it off to use in her Statistics Course at University, ran a little experiment at the Wiener Roast...
What flies farther? A watermelon seed, or a popcorn kernel?
Since genetics took most of the seeds out of the watermelon, for convenience sake, thereby depriving countless children the classic opportunity to spit the seeds, we've been struggling with keeping tradition alive. We tried other seeds, but all failed the criteria... popcorn kernels finally made the cut, being clean, easily available and rarely allergenic.
But...
True aficionados seek distance from a seed...
So Shelley spat three watermelon seeds, three popcorn kernels. A controlled experiment, as Science would demand -- same mouth, same wind direction and weather conditions, etc. etc.
And the result? Well, that would be telling... but since that's what we're here for:
Watermelon seed: 21'7"
Popcorn kernel: 19'8
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