Okay, this is not good. I understand what you said. I am officially an old geek. I'm from KY. It is the Bourbon-Lambert law.

I actually lived for a while in Bourbon County, KY . Drank nothing but Knob Creek.

No way I waste Knob Creek on a watermelon. Old Grandad, Old Crow, Very Old Barton, or anything with "old" in the name.

I like Wild Turkey. My son bought me a mini of Booker's. 127 proof. Really good top shelf stuff.

I once helped eat a watermelon that was filled with a mixture of Jack Daniels and Goldschlager. It was horrible, but my friend said he would wear it on his head if we finished it. We did, and he wore it proudly. I will never eat watermelon or drink Goldschlager again. JD is still on.

Ok, let me ask, would using a syringe to inject a liquid into the melon...would this change the density of the inside of the melon where the liquid is, whether the infused liquid covers the entire inside or part of the inside of the melon?

Why would I somehow not be surprised if I see a breaking news story on TV next week where IAH is evacuated, with dramatic live footage of the bomb squad using a robot to remotely detonate a pumpkin.

You're sort of missing the point but it is a very understandable question and there are no dumb questions, except perhaps "For the third time, what is your name" and, of course"DY...T.". X-rays, and gamma rays, and most any analytical tool using electromagnetic emissions don't really display useable images because it can quantify density. It works more on being able to discriminate between different densities. A diagnostician, or screener for that matter, can see a tumor in normal tissue or a claymore hidden in a pumpkin (and for loops, a claymore is a high explosive shaped anti-personnel weapon, or, if you prefer, a pretty efficient little stove for field rations if you slice off a sliver and light it) because the differing materials cause differing attenuation and/or absorption of the photon mediating the "ray."
For any more, you have to pay tuition. But I work cheap (Sorry Sister Agnes of the Sorrowful Adverbs) and I promise there are no groping gatekeepers to enter the fertile (non-sterile)area of scientific knowledge.
Ooh! "groping gatekeepers." I like it.

Perhaps. Have you seen a melon or pumpkin on x-ray to notice the different layers, or levels or strata, whatever we wish to call them? Regardless, if someone wishes to inject their watermelon with vodka, and enjoy it on the plane, feel free, I really do not think that would be a problem.

But as I was responding to someone who said they could put "quite a bit of non-watermelon liquid in a watermelon", knowing what a watermelon SHOULD look like on the inside when see on x-ray, I maintain that such delicious melon would quickly get the notice the screener on x-ray (but I also guess that depends on each persons definition of what "quite a bit" of liquid means).


Hmmm I think I may try to verify this myself! Well, not with vodka, I can't bring that to work

Try rubbing alcohol. It has pretty close to the same specific gravity/density(.877+-) as vodka(.95 for Skyy).

This time of the year in Texas you ought to be able to get small watermelons for about a nickel. Take two, one regular and one that has been infused. Do not do the test yourself. Ask your x-ray operators and see if they can pick the spiked one.

That I can do, and if it matters, it will be one of the many smaller size pumpkin varieties that can be found this time of year. To be honest, don't feel like carrying a full sized one to work, and I have no idea if that will make a difference. Just a heads up

You're forgetting density...It's analogous to using infrared light to study gas in a chamber. If you increase the pressure of the gas by 25%, you expect the light transmitted to decrease, simply because the IR is interacting with more atoms over the same path.

If you take a 2 kg watermelon and inject 500 mL of alcohol (2/3 of a bottle), you could increase the density of the watermelon by as much as 25%. This would significantly impact the attenuation of the x-rays, because there are more atoms per unit of path length.

I would guess a normal watermelon X-ray has a dark ring corresponding to the relatively dense rind, and a lighter colored interior. A fully saturated melon would probably have much less contrast gradient between rind and flesh, because air in cavities has been replaced with fluid. It would very likely be detectable, especially if you had a spiked watermelon side-by-side with a regular one. Here is an MRI of a watermelon:
Nothing to do with X-rays, it just looks cool!

So could the TSA's X-ray software detect a spiked melon? My questions would be:
1. Does a watermelon normally show up coded as a 'liquid/gel' on the monitor?
2. How much alcohol would you need to add before a watermelon would register as a gel?

It seems entirely possible that the automated system could flag the spiked melon. I'm guessing the answer to #1 is No (since watermelon flesh is less than 90% water by weight (pdf) and on top of that, they usually have some amount of void space) and #2 would depend on the detection threshold and the amount of liquid added.

I guess we'll have to wait for the 1st Annual TS&S Watermelon-Do to find out.
Anything with a large cavity (like a pumpkin or cantaloupe) would not address 4nsicdoc's argument - that the alcohol fills the melon evenly, leaving no sharp edges that would allow easy visual detection.

Try some of the tiny Dulcinea watermelons - they're about the size of a cantaloupe, and they tend to be seedless, reducing the amount of void space in the flesh. Of course you would need to inject the alcohol using a syringe, and you would probably need to wait days for it to diffuse completely throughout the entire melon to have a definitive answer.

Bacardi 151, we meet again!!

the iPhone can tell you what's in a watermelon:

While I was being sarcastic, I couldn't resist Googling it, and again, why am I not surprised my sarcasm had basis in reality?

http://www.davisenterprise.com/Archi...cious-pumpkin/
http://news.google.com/newspapers?ni...pg=1952,530974
http://www.boston.com/news/local/art...spect_pumpkin/

Talk about a thread that's gone out of control! We're now talking about the science of injecting a fruit to be used as a weapon!

The man wants to bring a pumpkin on a plane and the real question is whether this can be used as a weapon to injure people or bring down a plane. It's sad that the TSA rules aren't clear, and even worse, each TSA person enforces them based upon whatever mood they're in that day.

I say bring it to the airport and pass it through security. If the TSA guy there doesn't like it, ask for the manager and then cite the "fruits are allowed" section of the TSA website. And yes, it's a fruit as it has seeds. At that point, it's a black and white issue that the government has no legitimate reason to bar it from going onboard. Then it's up to the airline as to whether it meets size regulations.