Carrot Funstuff and Craft and experiments

The popularity of the carrot is not simply due to its health benefits, delicious flavour and ease of growing. Carrots have become popular at least in part because of the way they have entered the public imagination. Much of the credit must go to Bugs Bunny, who first appeared on our screens in 1938. Bugs has had numerous catchphrases, the most prominent being a casual "Eh... What's up, doc?", usually said while chewing a carrot. From this moment on carrots were associated with fun and enjoyment.

Also try the Carrot Experiments for Kids Here - or - kids craft items Here

You must also try Mr Carrot Head - Make a unique face for Mr Carrot to keep! CLICK HERE

The Carrot Museum Word Search - here

Follow the rainbow to good health and see what nutrients are contained in various colours of common fruit and vegetables - here.

A Carrot Picture Slider puzzle is here - opens in new window - Here

The Carroty Kid Comic

The Carrot Story (for younger kids) here

Jokes

"Clean" Carrot jokes are bit thin on the ground (just like you should sow carrots) But here's a few presentable ones:

JOKE A. Whenever the conversation gets around to Murphy's Law which states "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong", it is always good fun to slip something like the following statement into the conversation

"But that's not as bad as Cole's Law">

Continue the conversation and someone is bound to ask "What is Coles Law?".

To which you simply answer "Shredded carrot and cabbage in mayonnaise.".... Aargh!!

JOKE B. A guy walks into a doctors office with a carrot in his ear and a piece of celery up his nose. He says: " Doc, I don't know what's wrong with me!" The doctor thinks for a while, and finally says "bingo! I know what's wrong with you!" The patient says "Really? What is it?". "You're not eating right."

JOKE C .There was this guy who was eating out when this lady noticed a piece of corn in his ear. He pulled it out, then forgot about it and carried on. Then he found a chunk of carrot but he still continued oblivious to the world. Then he found a pea. The lady had enough exclaiming,

"Are you sick or something?"

"No but the last guy sat next to me was," came the reply.

JOKE D. How do you make gold soup?? Answer take 22 carrots!!

JOKE E . There were two carrots walking down the road, a big carrot and a little carrot. On the other side of the road they see their friend cabbage in his cabbage patch. Big carrot says "Let's go visit cabbage on the other side of the road." Little carrot says "But there is so much traffic here I'm afraid I might get run over."

Big carrot says "Nonsense, just wait for a break in the traffic and run as fast as you can." Big carrot sees a break in the traffic and runs over to cabbage. He then calls to is friend to try. Little carrot gets ready, sees a break in the traffic and runs across the road. Unfortunately there was a big truck coming and little carrot gets squashed in the middle of the road. Big carrot feels really bad and scoops his friend up and takes him to the hospital. The doctors perform emergency surgery.

After several hours the doctor comes out. "I have some good news and some bad news." Big carrot says "Ok doc, go ahead, I can take it." The doctor says, "Well the good news is that your friend is going to live, but the bad news is he's going to be a vegetable for the rest of his life."

JOKE F. A guy goes into the bar with a carrot in his ear. He orders a drink. The bar one arm bandit tender wants to mention the carrot but doesn't.

Next day the same guy with a carrot in his ear goes to the same bar and orders a drink. Again the bar tender wants to say something about the carrot but doesn't.

The 3rd day the same guy and the same carrot go to the bar and order a drink. As the bar tender serves the man he can't stand it anymore. He says to the patron, "Hey Mack, you know you got a carrot in your ear? The patron says to the bartender, I can't hear you because I've got a carrot in my ear.

JOKE G.

Knock Knock -Who's there? Carrot Barbie?

Carrot! - Carrot who?

Carrot me back home!

JOKE H.

What do you call an elephant with a carrot in each ear?

Anything you want as he can't hear you!

JOKE I.

Confucius says, "Woman who cook carrots and peas in same pot, very unsanitary."

JOKE J A rabbit went to a general store in the countryside: "Do you have any carrots?"
The clerk replied: "Sorry, don't have any"
So the rabbit went away. He came back the next morning, and again asked: "do you have any carrots?" And the clerk replied again: "Sorry, don't have any"
This happened every morning for about a week. Then one morning, the clerk was getting a bit p****d off about the rabbit coming over every morning, so he said to the rabbit: "Now look, we don't sell any carrots here, you ask for carrots one more time, I'll nail you to the wall from your ears!"
The rabbit stood still for a while, and went away.
The next morning the rabbit came to the store again, and asked: "Do you have any nails?"
The clerk was a bit confused, but replied: "No, I just run out of nails, sorry little fella."
The rabbit: "Well do you have any carrots, then?"

JOKE K Two women were digging in the garden. One pulls out a two foot carrot. She says, "This one reminds me of my husband's." The second woman says, "Your husbands is that long?" "No that dirty."

Variation to K - "Two women were digging in the garden. One pulls out a two foot purple carrot. "This one reminds me of my husbands," she says. The second woman takes the long bumpy into her hands and analyzes the carrot closer. She even smells it and then replies, "Yeah, it sort of does look like your husbands."

Carrot Brain Teasers and games

There are many games people play with some of the larger vegetables. Some towns have pumpkin catapult contests and others will play softball using very large zucchini squash as softball bats.

The possibilities are only limited by your imagination. It might be fun to think of a game to play with the large carrots. Why not try the teasers or carrot party game or other fun stuff shown elsewhere in the museum?

PUZZLE NO 1. And the answer is ….....

It's simple enough. Try it out on your friends. Ask these questions ensuring that they answer quickly.

What is two plus four? The Carrot Trap

What is three plus three?

What is five plus one?

What is two plus two plus two?

Name a vegetable. And the answer is ???? Click here to find out.

Kids who like to play with their food might want to try their hands at this Chinese carrot stick game.
To solve the puzzle, have your kids arrange 18 carrot sticks into nine equal-sided (equilateral) triangles as shown below.

The challenge is to remove three sticks to change the pattern into six equilateral triangles. Like any good brainteaser, this carrot stick puzzle has several possible solutions. See how many different ways your family can solve the problem. Click on the picture for the answer.

The Thumb Trick

Break a carrot MagicTrick

This is a painful looking trick!

Take a carrot before the trick starts and cut one end off about the size of your thumb and then hide it in your hand. Start the trick be saying you are going to put needles through your thumb.

Take a handkerchief and put it over your thumb but actually stick the carrot up instead of your thumb. now stick the pins through your "thumb" and make a pained expression then take them out and grab the carrot off with your handkerchief and casually set them aside.

Break a carrot with a piece of paper.

What you need: A very thin carrot and a piece of paper.

1. Hold the carrot in one hand, and the piece of paper (folded in half) in the other hand.
2. Keep your index finger behind the paper so the audience doesn't see it.
3. Move the paper across the middle of the carrot, and break it by applying pressure with your finger (but don't let anyone see it!)
4. It will appear as if you broke the carrot with the piece of paper!

A Quick Party Game: Pass the carrot
Choose a long carrot and get your guests to pass it to the person next to them - between their knees. Cut 1 or 2cm off the carrot each time it is dropped.

When the carrot is so small that it can't be passed on, then holder is the winner.

The answer

Click on the picture to take you back

The Answer - YES you have guessed it A CARROT.

Now read on for the explanation or click here to go back.

Experiments carried out by university lecturers on students, psychologists on colleagues and teachers on pupils have shown that between 66% and 90% come up with the answer Carrot!!

Readers of the "New Scientist" are puzzling over why this should be. Random tests simply asking to name a vegetable came up with random answers. What is further intriguing is that many other answers when not carrot were orange or something orange!

Another experiment showed that 60% answered carrot and a further 20% answered cabbage.

Extra data:

1. The experiment doesn't work well on people who do not have English as their first language.
2. A curiously common answer is "orange", or "something orange".
3. If you do a similar experiment asking people to name a vegetable with no preamble, the response is fairly random with peas and potatoes being the most common.

Favoured hypotheses:
So why is that people say "carrot" when they are asked to name a vegetable after doing simple mental arithmetic. Here are some suggestions:

1. "Carrot" sounds like "count/counting".
2. The series of ever increasing numbers resembles a continuously increasing shape - like a carrot - although the "equals six" experiment would seem to discount this.
3. The conceptual image of a carrot is the simplest mathematical/geometrical vegetable: a rotated triangle.
4. "Carrot" is the most common vegetable, and therefore the one that most people are likely to think of when they're asked the question: "Name a vegetable."
5. A "carrot" is the most distinctive vegetable because of its colour and shape, and it is what is scientifically known as a "cool" vegetable.
6. The subjects are making an association of sounds between the vowel sound "a" in the word "maths", and the vowel sound "a" in the word "carrot". This would seem to be very logical because the word "cabbage", which was the second most popular choice of vegetable, also has the same vowel sound "a".
7. There is some connection between the conceptual image of a carrot, and the geometrical shape formed by the sums. The ever-increasing series of numbers form a shape in the subjects' mind, which resembles a pyramid-type geometrical form, which is similar to a carrot.
8. Carrots are also suggestive of a particular anatomical feature of the human body; and perhaps this is a case of the subconscious thought being expressed without censorship. There has been an in depth discussion on this phenomenon in the "New Scientist". If you are interested click here (opens in new window) - scroll down to "carrot brains".
Click here to get back to the question and puzzle no 2.