Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,

I am doing something similar to the fruit ripening experiment and am getting unexpected results. I have a pear not in a bag and it is ripening the fastest. Second fastest is the pear alone in the bag. The least ripest is the pear in the bag w/ a banana. (The pear in a bag w/ a brown banana is equally unripe, as is the pear in the bag w/ 3 bananas.) I am judging by looks and feel as I cannot get staining solution. The pears are turning yellow as they ripen. There is condensation in the bags w/ bananas but almost none in the bag with just one pear. How can I research what is happening? I thought the ethylene from the bananas would make the pears in those bags ripen faster! Thank you.

Hi anned,

You do have some unexpected results!

I searched "pears and ripening" in Google, and came up with several hits. Here is a link to one site that explains how best to check for ripening in pears: http://www.usapears.com/educators/ripening.asp
Note that color is not necessarily the best indicator, and that pears ripen from the inside out!

I hope this helps you with your research.

Good luck!
Heather

One more possibility for you to think about: Were the pears equally ripe to begin with? If the one in the bag by itself was more ripe to begin with, that could affect your results.

Combined with what mostman and MelissaB have said already, make sure that you start off initially with pears that are equally as ripe, or at almost the same ripeness, by testing the pears like the website states (provided by mostman). This way, you may get more accurate results; the ripeness may have been your problem.