Our Standards of Measurement

Envisioning the scale of object in a photograph is difficult. That difficulty is compounded by being displayed on a laptop, phone, or even a future device of unknown screen size and resolution capabilities.

Thanks to the Internets, a hint at the solution has been practiced for some time. It is known as the “banana for scale” principle.

As scientists, we have employed BforS in the past but were always bothered by the imprecision in the production of real world bananas and the meantime between failure (MTBF) of such a tool.

The r26D Weights & Measures Committee have now standardized on a standardized banana to include in the photographic presentations of our work. It has taken some amount of testing to finalize our choice as often happens with any tool selection.

Prototype Alpha-Uno

This banana was our first attempt. After using it even briefly, issues surfaced.

1. Size - at less than 6” it is too small to represent an actual banana
2. Color - too yellow. Looks more like banana taffy.
3. Quality - injection molded, seams are too visible
4. Durability - foam will not survive the lab or UV exposure

After searching the Internet, we found our next contender.

Prototype Alpha-Dos

Re-running our acceptance tests, this banana was an improvement in every aspect and approved for beta testing. To preserve the internal validity of our tests, we sent a beta banana into the field. The expert chefs at Krista’s Culinary Creations volunteered to beta test. Using mobile technology they submitted their results directly from their remote location, free from our testing biases.

With such strong external proof combined with our in-house results, we have released the our new standard.

Official r26D Banana for Scale Standard Unit of Measurement Set v1.0

Length = 8.000” inches

Width = 1.5000” inches

Below is the legend so any viewer can accurately calculate the size of any objects in our published images. To further ensure accuracy, the Official Banana v1.0 was measured with a Mitutyo CD-6”CDX digital caliper and Mitutoyo 24” Tempered Steel straight rule.

This standard is scheduled to be re-evaluated by the r26D Weights & Measures Committee in five years.