Animated Jumping Bean & Gall
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Jumping Bean vs. Jumping Gall

A Comparison Of Their Jumping Ability

The round jumping gall (top) actually jumps up and down as it moves across your screen. The angular jumping bean (lower) rarely jumps, instead it just rolls, jerks and tumbles across your screen. Both are powered by the force of a small insect larva that literally hurls its body within the gall or bean.

Official WAYNE'S WORD High Jump Contest

On September 1, 1997 fifteen jumping beans competed with fifteen jumping galls at the WAYNE'S WORD office. All jumping larvae were carefully inspected to see that they were not on steroids or carrying any special jumping devices inside their beans or galls. The tests were performed on a flat formica table top and observed by the entire WAYNE'S WORD hippo staff. Maximum heights attained by all jumpers are shown in the following cluster bar graph:

As you can clearly see from this imported graph, the jumping beans barely got off the ground, while some of the jumping galls reached slightly over 10 millimeters. Note: This contest was sponsored by the California Gall-Jumpers Association. The research and computer data analysis was funded by UNSF Grant No. 00001 from the Unnatural Science Foundation.

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