Re: Banana Primer with Pix
Propping is from the realm of physics and structural engineering. Different plants have different thicknesses (some are very slender, some quite fat). Also depending on the style (mostly width) of the leaf stem (the part that forms the pseudostem) the truniks are stronger or weaker. When you take something long, and slender and subject it to wind, it can bend or break. The most extreme example is hurricane damage (even to thick and strong things). The other issue is hanging a large weight on the end of a long object (pole, etc.). Pickup a 10 lb sack of sugar with y9ur hands, and then pick it up on the end of a fishing pole. Big difference. So with bananas: when you hang a large weight on the end of a slender pole (trunk) you have tremendous leverage which will act to bend of break your pole (trunk). (Now put that weight on a long trunk and put it in the wind at the same time). The point of the prop is to carry the wieght of the bananas, rather than allowing the weak banana trunk to carry the weight. You are not propping the trunk, but the weight of the bananas. Sort of like you "helping" your small child to carry something. You are doing the work, and he is holding onto the handle, thinking that he is actually carrying the load.
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