Sunday, November 18, 2012

Science Sunday: Week 3

Science Sunday brought Ed and the kids into the kitchen this week. Only it was in the middle of dinner preparations, so I sent them packing. They were not dissuaded from their project by my lack of enthusiasm, they just filled up a pot of water and went to the bathroom.

The back story is that Helen and Ed purchased a pomegranate when they were on a field trip to the grocery store today. The last time we had one of these things in our house, I remembered it was a mess getting the seeds out, so upon seeing the fruit, I helpfully said "there's a right way to cut that thing which makes getting the seeds out very easy". Ed asked where I had seen the instructions to get the seeds out. I answered, like everyone else who ever needs a piece of information, "the Internet".

Ed dutifully went to youtube and learned that if you score the pomegranate, you can break it apart easily and get all the seeds out without making a mess. Sounds simple, right?

As you might imagine, I was a bit skeptical, since neither Ed nor the children can do ANYTHING without making a mess. And the three of them working in tandem is typically an unstoppable mess. I give Ed credit though, he knows his limits.

He had Connor and Helen jump in the bathtub for the experiment. And guess what?


Helen is clearly a bit skeptical about the labor she's being asked to perform.
No mess! It was easy! The seeds dropped right to the bottom of the water. There must be some scientific principles involving buoyancy at work here, right?



Maybe we'll eat more pomegranates now.

Elaine


2 comments:

  1. it is so fitting that you posted this. I was listening to "Wait Wait Don't Tell me Yesterday" sometime this week (podcast) and Martha Stewart described this exact method. I have two pomegranates waiting for this.

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  2. I have a friend in Israel who gets to eat pomegranates every day... she'll be very happy to know there is an easier method!

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