How many Wedges?

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Being a daring, living life on the wedge sort of guy, I recently counted the number of wedges in mandarin oranges.
Total# Wedges

11

10

6

9

2

8

1

11



I was inspired because I had once heard (many years ago) on a science show that every ear of corn has an even number of rows. I have never actually confirmed that. But I decided it would interesting to see if any regular pattern appeared in Mandarin oranges: always the same number of wedges or always even or odd numbers of wedges. It seems to be a 2:1 preference for even numbers of wedges.

Image nabbed from here.

Comments

KayMac said…
Interesting. In my previous career, I worked w/ the elderly. It is said that your nose and ears keep growing as you age. So me & a bunch of my elderly pals measured the noses/ears of youngsters and oldsters. While there was a marked difference in size, especially btwn the young men/older men...the thing we found most interesting was that from the bridge of the nose to the tip measured exactly the same as the top of one's ear to it's bottom.

Since I pushed a lot of balding men in wheelchairs, I also noticed that the hair swirl pattern was most commonly from left to right, the same direction our water swirls into the drain. It made me wonder if head swirls below the equator would most often match the water swirl pattern as well, theorizing that the gravitational pull was playing some role here. Altho, I never studied this beyond that thought.
March 08, 2007 3:27 PM
RennyBA said…
You are such a lovely man and I love your curiousnesses - thanks for sharing and I wish you a lovely end to your week too:-)
March 08, 2007 6:01 PM
Barbara said…
Those look like clementines, not mandarin oranges. It would be interesting to study other forms of citrus, grapefruit for example, to see if they have the same pattern. Does someone need a science fair project. Oh, you could also count seeds!
March 08, 2007 7:27 PM
Barbara said…
Reporting in: I just ate a Florida pink grapefruit with 13 sections and 5 seeds. I may become obsessive about counting my citrus now...
March 08, 2007 9:35 PM
Mother of Invention said…
You're the only one I know who would try to find this out! Did you eat them all in one day?!!
My brother-in-law is a farmer and grows corn....not sweet corn but feed corn, so I'll ask him.
March 08, 2007 10:19 PM
vina said…
and you did this while you were....
a. at work
b. home
c. ____________?

have a lovely weekend richard! :)
March 09, 2007 6:08 AM
sereneannabelle said…
by the time i even decide to count it, i would have placed all the wedges in my mouth. HAHA!

good for you. now we've learnt something new!! it's never too old to learn new things, isn't it? =)
March 09, 2007 11:56 PM
Richard said…
kaymac: cool. I have heard that nose and ear hair continues to grow. I have never heard noses and ears continue to grow. One thing I have noticed is that babies (of all species, including humans) are born with relatively flat faces and as they mature, the facial features elongate.

I never noticed hair swirl patterns. My dad keeps his so short it looks like it is painted on his head and both JJ and I have curly hair that is usually a dishevelled mop on our heads.

rennyba: thanks renny.

barbara: wikipedia said they were mandarins. Personally, I really don't see the diffrence between mandarins and clementines. I think I had one seed in my test sample.

I had a mineola last night with 11 wedges and 3 pips.

MOI: I ate them over two days.

vina: yes.

goodshithappens: I counted quickly because I wanted to eat them too.
March 10, 2007 7:56 AM
Barbara said…
The big difference between mandarins and clementines is that mandarins have lots of seeds and clementines are not supposed to have any seeds at all.
March 10, 2007 7:22 PM
Mother of Invention said…
It could be about the same # wedges whether they be oranges, tangerines, mandarins, clementines or whatever. (My clems had an average of 11 wedges/sections)
March 11, 2007 11:22 AM
Richard said…
barbara: ok. Personally, I prefer them seedless.

MOI: there is probably some limit. I have yet to see a pomelo with 100 wedges or a lime with only 3.
March 11, 2007 5:07 PM
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