Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
Put a smartwatch or fitness tracker on a fruit and there’s a decent chance you’ll get a pulse rate. Fruits, of course, don’t have a heart, so what’s going on?
Smartwatches detect our heart rate through something known as photoplethysmography (PPG). It’s all about how light gets reflected and absorbed as our heartbeats briefly increase the volume of blood in the capillaries in our skin.
Put that same tech on a fruit and it’s still going to try and find a pulse. Random changes in light absorption and reflection therefore get misinterpreted by the tech’s algorithm and translated into a pulse. From tachycardic kiwis to borderline bradycardic bananas, the results can be quite entertaining. Try it for yourself and let us know whose pulse is racing in your fruit bowl.
Read more: iflscience.com/put-your-smartwatch-on-a-fruit-and-something-really-weird-happens-how-can-a-banana-have-a-heart-rate-83855
Put a smartwatch or fitness tracker on a fruit and there’s a decent chance you’ll get a pulse rate. Fruits, of course, don’t have a heart, so what’s going on?
Smartwatches detect our heart rate through something known as photoplethysmography (PPG). It’s all about how light gets reflected and absorbed as our heartbeats briefly increase the volume of blood in the capillaries in our skin.
Put that same tech on a fruit and it’s still going to try and find a pulse. Random changes in light absorption and reflection therefore get misinterpreted by the tech’s algorithm and translated into a pulse. From tachycardic kiwis to borderline bradycardic bananas, the results can be quite entertaining. Try it for yourself and let us know whose pulse is racing in your fruit bowl.
Read more: iflscience.com/put-your-smartwatch-on-a-fruit-and-something-really-weird-happens-how-can-a-banana-have-a-heart-rate-83855
