Sunday, September 23, 2007

So How Many Seeds Does a Pomegranate Have?


Okay. Sorry I missed posting it two weeks ago but this is too cool.

So it's like this. Everybody knows the age old question "how many seeds does a pomegranate have?" And every little Jewish kid at Rosh Hashanah knows the answer. Exactly 613 - parallel to the number of mitzvos of the Torah. Hmm.

But do they really have 613?

A Columbia University professor (likely for a statistics course) collected data by counting seeds from 206 pomegranates from all over the world. The least number of seeds one had was 165 (an Iranian one...hmm...) and the max number was 1370 (from one grown in the USA).

But the average number of seeds was remarkably exactly 613!

The entire study including all the data can be found here.

Hat Tip: existwhere?

1 Comments:

Blogger Chassidishe Yid said...

Very cool. There is also some other symbolism too, something like 12 sections to a pomegranate or something to that effect. Not amazing by itself, but teamed with the 613 seeds, it is a sure symbol of Torah mitzvot and 12 Israelite tribes.

2:24 AM  

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