Question

Sam puts a few pears in a bowl with some other fruit. A few days later, he notices that some of the pears are soft and ripe, while others are hard and unripe. He wonders what factors affect how quickly fruit becomes ripe. So, he decides to design an experiment. He has the following supplies available: two unripe bananas two unripe pears a glass bowl two paper bags Using only these supplies, which two questions can Sam investigate with an experiment?

Answer 1

Sam can investigate how ripening is affected by ethylene gas by placing unripe pears with bananas inside a paper bag, and can compare this to the ripening of pears placed in a glass bowl. He can also examine if a closed environment like a paper bag speeds up the ripening process by trapping ethylene.

Step-by-step explanation:

Factors Affecting Fruit Ripening

Using the supplies available, Sam can investigate two questions regarding how fruit becomes ripe. One question is what happens to an unripe fruit when placed in a paper bag with a ripe fruit. The second question is how the presence of another fruit, like bananas, affects the ripening process of pears. Bananas are known to release ethylene gas, which is a ripening agent. Thus, Sam can compare how quickly a pear ripens in a bag with a banana versus on its own in a bowl. For accuracy, Sam should use a glass bowl for one set of fruits and a paper bag for another to control the environment where the fruits are stored.

During the experiment, Sam can observe whether the fruits ripen faster in the presence of bananas, and whether a closed environment, like a paper bag, contributes to the ripening process due to the trapping of ethylene gas. The ripening of fruit is influenced by environmental factors such as temperature and ethylene exposure, which is why placing unripe bananas and pears in a warmer environment should result in faster ripening.