Harvesting these cilantro seeds (coriander)led me to this small investigation of the seed size.

My reason told me that they might be a bit different because the seeds which fell off of the cilantro may have been more ready to grow, and perhaps larger.   My eyes told me that the following two groups of cilantro seeds were of different sizes, with the seeds which fell off by themselves being a little larger.

Problem.  So I asked the question, “Are the seeds which fell off of the cilantro stems larger than the seeds which, being leftover, I pulled off of the cilantro stems?”   This is the problem.

 These seeds had fallen off of the stems into the plastic bag.

 These seeds were pulled off the stems after the others had fallen off.

 The plate on the left holds the seeds which had fallen.  The plate on the right holds the seeds which had been pulled off.

I applied the scientific method, as I first learned it.  State the:

1. Problem
2. Hypothesis
3. Method
4. Results
5. Conclusion

Hypothesis.  The hypothesis is that the seeds that fell off of the stems are larger than the ones which I pulled off of the stems.

Method.   Weigh 500 seeds  and  700 seeds in each group to the nearest gram using this kitchen scale. The assumption here is that the weight of the seeds parallels the volume of the seeds as they are visible to the eye.  In other words we are assuming that the seeds have the same average density.

This scale measure to the nearest one twentieth of an ounce, or to the nearest gram.

Results.  The numbers in parentheses indicate that the scale had shown that number briefly before settling on the number beside it not in parentheses.

Seed Weights In Grams

500 Seeds                                              700 Seeds

Fell off                                                                                                4 (5)                                                               6

Pulled off                                                                                  (3) 4                                                                (5) 6

Conclusions.

1. By themselves, without including trends, show no difference in the weights between the respective number of seeds for each group.
2. The initial weights suggest that there is a difference between the seed weights in the two harvest groups, consistent with the hypothesis that the seeds which fell off earlier are a little larger.

Certainly, I did not disprove the hypothesis, but I did not prove it very well either, because as conducted here, the scale is not sensitive enough.