Science proves that you can compare apples and oranges

All you need is a spectrometer. I mean, geez. Was that so hard?

Materials and Methods
Both samples were prepared by gently desiccating them in a convection oven at low temperature over the course of several days. The dried samples were then mixed with potassium bromide and ground in a small ball-bearing mill for two minutes. One hundred milligrams of each of the resulting powders were then pressed into a circular pellet having a diameter of 1 cm and a thickness of approximately 1 mm. Spectra were taken at a resolution of 1 cm-1 using a Nicolet 740 FTIR spectrometer. Figure 2 shows a comparison of the 4000-400 cm-1 (2.5-25 mm) infrared transmission spectra of a Granny Smith apple and a Sunkist Navel orange.

Conclusions
Not only was this comparison easy to make, but it is apparent from the figure that apples and oranges are very similar. Thus, it would appear that the comparing apples and oranges defense should no longer be considered valid. This is a somewhat startling revelation. It can be anticipated to have a dramatic effect on the strategies used in arguments and discussions in the future.

Scott Sandford, NASA Ames Research Center, for the Annals of Improbable Research.

(Via David Dobbs)

Image: Some rights reserved by TheBusyBrain

• [jowlsey]

  Scott is late to the party- http://www.slate.com/id/2254782/

• [Anonymous]

  Maybe I’m missing the point of this, but surely the original phrase comes from the fact that in the past homegrown apples were far cheaper than expensive, imported oranges?

• [Nelson.C]

  If you ground me up and put me through a spectrometer, then compared the results to, say, Maggie Koerth-Baker’s spectrograph, I dare say you wouldn’t find much difference there, either. Doesn’t detecting differences depend on which senses or sensors one uses? An eye that can’t tell the difference between grass and a tiger isn’t much use to a plains-dwelling ape.

  • [MandoSpaz]

    I don’t know, after all, a nod’s as good as a wink to a blind bat, eh?

  • [millrick]

    if you ground cory up, would it be with or without his cape?
    i’m sure that would make a difference

• [Astragali]

  Well, Cox’s Orange Pippins always put doubt in my mind, ever since I was told many years ago – and apparently incorrectly – that they were a cross between an apple and an orange.

  I dunno – the things kids are told when growing up…

• [VICTOR JIMENEZ]

  I smell a great candidate for next year IgNobel prizes.

• [Anonymous]

  You’ve nailed it Maggie
  :laughing out loud:

• [Saint Fnordius]

  Although things like this are fun, they miss the point of the analogy: how do you judge the quality of an orange when your only metric is an apple, or vice versa?

  • [Pantograph]

    This is a job for Maslow’s Golden Juicer.

• [n5berm]

  I’ve been comparing horse apples and osage oranges for years. They, too, are remarkably similar.

• [McLuhanesque]

  I actually used a similar discussion in an interstitial chapter in my doctoral thesis: http://valencetheory.pbworks.com/The-Fruit .

  Sharpening a cliché into a probe is often a useful mechanism to achieve new insights; in my case, a way of introducing the commonality between disparate models of organization.

• [cellocgw]

  You guys have GOT to be kidding. This article was published nearly 15 years ago.
  (I’ve been carrying a miniaturized laminated version in my wallet ever since, so I should know).

• [RedSun]

  This may very well revolutionize how we argue on the internet.

• [G144]

  My take away? “Its all ball bearings these days.”

• [zartan]

  wow, way to miss the point (not to mention the link)

• [kleer001]

  I always thought this was one of the dumbest sayings.
  Of course you can compare them.
  For one they’re both small round sweet tree fruit.

  • [kip w]

    Exactly right, and I’ve been comparing the two for years. They have similarities and differences, like any other two things, and you can make lists of these things if it pleases you. Coke and Pepsi, Day and Night, Schlitz and Shinola, or potatoes and cinderblocks.

    Who says two things have to be remotely similar to be compared?

• [JustOk]

  …I thought it about comparing apples and orangutans. I misunderstood.

• [rebdav]

  Since this is fruit it is probably mostly fructose, water, and some longer sugars for the cell walls, an apple would also probably match watermelon and cucumber pretty well at a guess. If I was doing the test to pick oranges I would look for lines relating to citrate, ascorbic acid and if we were also talking peels some citrus oils.

• [Nonentity]

  The obvious response to someone pulling this out would be, “well, fine, just show me the spectra of [things originally being compared] after gently desiccating them for several days and then grinding them up…”

  Extra fun when what are being compared is extremely expensive equipment, or basic ideas like political systems!

• [Phikus]

  We might just have to resort to comparing Oranges and Lemons.

• [jimkirk]

  This reminds me of David Gerrold’s novel _When Harlie was One_, about a sentient computer’s project to build the ultimate modeling machine. One of Harlie’s examples was that if you want to know which juice was better for you, it could model your body to a molecular level, add one cup of different juices to the model, and calculate exactly which one was better for you. Want to know who will win the election? Just model the psychological profile of all the voters and calculate away…

  Harlie’s ultimate goal was to model the entire universe, analyze the model for signs of G-d, and thus determine the existence or non-existence of a deity.

  A good, light read.

• [Anonymous]

  Pshaw! I’ve compared apples and oranges using only a scale. It turns out they both have mass, and indeed are much more similar to one another than either is to a Chevrolet.