The Speed of Time by Cole E
October 6th, 2008 4:07 PM / Location: 41.951212,-93.66840After a day there wasn't any change noticed and the apples both were continuing in time to there impending doom.
After a few days, the apple in the bag began to lose its firmness and there was a noticeable amount of air accompanying it. As for it's fellow rotting friend, it remained just as decrepit as it had a few days before.
After a week, the bagged apple exploded from the gas building up inside of it. Again, the other apple showed only a bit more mushiness on its top than before.
Although the experiment seems to be pointing in favor of rot-producing gases, I wanted to be absolutely sure. The apple that was bagged previously was already much further in its rot than the other so it may just be appearing to rot faster than the other.
To double check, I've currently placed the other apple inside a vacuumed bag as well (marking it to remember which is which) and will be checking it periodically to see if it's rot has also sped up. I will also be checking the previously bagged apple for the sake of "gross."
I will be updating this post with those results next week.
***UPDATE***
Saturday, October 11, 2008
I rechecked the apples and the initial disgusting apple is now seeping yellow liquid and, after accidentally dropping it after taking the picture, is all mush. The other apple is rapidly catching up with the majority of the top rotten portion from before taking over more of the apple and filling the bag with gas. I think I will keep updating this task as the apples become more and more disgusting so check back every week.
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But I approve of self-destructing apples.
Hey who doesn't.
Have you tried using those old apples to get your green bananas to ripen?
A kid on a Chiquita cargo ship taught me that trick.
it's ethene gas. it's naturally produced by fruits (and veggies) of all sorts (especially cut apples), that's why there's the saying "one bad apple spoils the barrel," if you cut an apple and put it in a paper bag with your green bananas they will ripen, and why produce is able to be shipped to the US from places like Argentina - they remove all the existing air and gases from a shipping container and replace it with nitrogen or carbon dioxide, effectively arresting the natural ripening processes.
so, perhaps starting with cut fruit vs. non-cut fruit might be more dramatic.
tis not only fruit but any organic matter.. and some release faster then others. For example youll never find certain types of flowers mixed with other types as it can speed up the rotting process for the Less hardy floral variety. I give you 5 cause you reminded me of my floral design education and Because your description of your experiments rapidly growing squishyness was quite humerous...especially when you referred to the "dropped" apple. *giggles*
well done
Interesting. Hard to control for moisture, temperature, etc - but it's a nice take on this task.