What is inside a jumping bean that makes it jump?

Answer 1

A Ball Bearing, when the Bean is tipped, the ball rolls to the downwards facing end, therefore lifting the opposite end, if the beans are flipped fast enough the bean appears to jump.

Answer 2

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/plaug97.htm

Inside each bean is an insect
larva. This larva eats the seed from the inside out and will sometimes
move around in the seed. This moving causes the seed to jump. Another
fact is that the seed is not a bean but the seed of a tree.

Mexican jumping beans are not actually beans. they are the eggs of a certain critter found in that region. The jumping is caused by the animal trying to break the shell to get out.

Mexican jumping beans are a phenomenon native to Mexico where they are known as brincadores. Physically, they resemble small tan or brown beans. They are a type of seed in which the egg of a small moth has been laid. It is the moth's larva which makes them "jump". The beans themselves are from a shrub of the genus Sebastiania (S. palmeri or S. pavoniana), while the moth is of the species Carpocapsa saltitans — "carpo" indicating that it lives within a seed (see podocarp), and "saltitans" referring to its jumping behavior. After the egg has hatched, the larva eats away the inside of the bean, making a hollow for itself. It attaches itself to the bean with many silken threads. When the bean is abruptly warmed, for instance by being held in the palm of the hand, the larva twitches and spasms, pulling on the threads and causing the characteristic hop. "Jump" is often an exaggeration, but the beans are nonetheless far from immobile.


Bean showing "trap door", Pupal casing.The larva may live for months inside the bean with varying periods of dormancy. If the larva has adequate conditions such as moisture, it will live long enough to go into a pupal stage. Normally in the spring, the moth will force its way out of the bean through a round "trap door", leaving behind the pupal casing.

The small, silver and gray colored moth will live for only a few days.


Adult moth.Jumping beans were used as a recurring gag in many cartoons in the 1930s to the 1950s. They are particularly common in the northern desert states of Sonora and Chihuahua; indeed, Álamos, Sonora, claims to be "the jumping bean capital of the world".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_jumping_bean

Answer 3

a small green worm.
the reason the beans jump
is your hand warms the bean making the worm inside try to get out. the worm spends its whole life trying to get out of the bean. but doesnt

Answer 4

Real jumping beans contain a fly larvae (sorry - not sure of the species) who's movements cause the bean to jump.

Answer 5

The bean itself doesn't actually jump. It is the larvae of a moth that has burrowed itself inside to eat the seed.

Answer 6

It has an insect in larval form inside that causes the bean to jump

Answer 7

" It is actually a small, thin-shelled section of a seed capsule containing the larva of a small gray moth called the jumping bean moth (Laspeyresia saltitans). After consuming the seed within the capsule section, the robust, yellowish-white larva has the peculiar habit of throwing itself forcibly from one wall to the other, thereby causing the jumping movements of the capsule. "

Go here for more details:
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/plaug97.htm

Answer 8

A tiny Moth!
Mexican Jumping beans R cool.
Had some when I was a child, it hatched & out came a v plain but tiny moth that flew away & proberly died in Cold drafty Britain.

Answer 9

my pap told me that there used to be a little worm or a bug that crawled around inside the bean, if you really want to know the right answer break it open.

Answer 10

They do really jump, it is a tiny creature(insect I think, might be a worm though) which moves around inside it.