h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Erm...what is an Adams Apple anyway?

Just one of the few things that distinguishes a man from a woman.

It's that little thing that bobs up and down in a male throat as he speaks, swallows, etc.

But why is it called ADAM's Apple? Eve scoffed it first... (and technically, it wasn't even an apple)

Adam's (Because Eve didn't have one. )

Apple (Ever go bobbing for apples? )

yeah yeah, but it must serve a purpose - some masculine thing I assume. What's it for and why haven't women got one?

Men and women have different Vocal cords, listen carefully and you may find that the sound different, as well as look different.

well bless you for that, they're definitely, irrefutably vocal cords then? So when a male transexual moves over to the world of fem - they shrink do they, or what...

Depends how good the Job is. In my experience transexuals who have a very feminine voice (eg. Jackie from BBC's Paddington Green) have less of an Adam's apple than transexuals who still sound very masculine (eg. Faye Presto the not so famous magician)

I seem to remember reading somewhere that women do indeed have Adam's Apples. It's just that they typically have more fat on their necks (forgive me, ladies, I'm merely reporting what I've read) than men do, so their Adam's apples don't show. I may be wrong, though.

I am not of the medical profession, so take my words for what they're worth.
Here's what i know:

Everyone, male or female, has a thyroid cartilage.
The thyroid cartilage is composed of 2 laminae, left and right.
The right and left laminae fuse anteriorly in the midline.
The angle of fusion is more acute in the male and forms the laryngeal
prominence (Adam's apple) after puberty.

You can check http://numedsun.ncl.ac.uk/~nds4/tutorials/larynx/text/p1ot.html for a
picture and explanation of the local anatomy, or http://web.indstate.edu/thcme/duong/neck.html
for a more in-depth text.

Having the apparent function of protecting the thyroid gland, there seems to be no functional difference
between the male and female cartilages.

There are reported cases of the thyroid gland in men having been surgicaly "shaved", i.e., having cartilage tissue removed from its upper anterior portion, for cosmetic, purposes, and the procedure seems to have no negative effects on the subject. Voice tone is supposedly not changed by this procedure.

Cor! Core, what a brilliantly thorough answer, thanks for that.

And as for why it's called an Adam's Apple as opposed to someone else's apple (or some other type of fruit), there's actually a rather interesting story behind this. Or maybe it's not interesting. It was when I last heard it, but the guy telling it was a good storyteller and...never mind. The point is there's a story. And here it is. When Adam was first made he didn't have an Adam's Apple, and was indeed unaware that he was missing one given that the concept hadn't been introduced to him yet. Anyway, you know how the story goes, they eat the fruit, God shows up and tells them "No" and boots them out of Paradise, etc. But where my story bit comes in is apparently some religious guy (or girl. I'm not sure on this point) came up with the concept of telling people that Adam choked on a piece of the apple as sort of a moral message, and to prove this he pointed out that all men still have the apple chunk in their throats, and he called it "Adam's Apple" due to the fact that he was blaming the whole thing on Adam. This was quite a bit back and may in fact have never occured, but it makes for a good story. At least it would if I was any good at storytelling, which I'm not.

Perhaps the apple should have carried a label:

"Warning: When eating apples, please chew thoroughly."

So, God's greatest mistake was not to invent product liability consultants first?