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When cereals turn to dust in their bags, it annoys me greatly. Not eating it is a waste, but mixing with milk produces an unappetising mud-like substance.
Naturally, the cereal at the bottom of the packet turns to dust first, leaving the rest of the cereal safe.
I propose a packet of wheat added
at the bottom of the normal packet, which in time becomes crushed in lieu of the cereal.
This packet can be reused for further cereal, and once fully pulverised (and hence no longer useful) you can empty the packet and use it as flour.
The "Brazil Nut Effect"
http://en.wikipedia...i/Brazil_nut_effect
[hippo, Jan 14 2008]
The "Brazil Nut Effect"
http://news.bbc.co....ci/tech/1655558.stm
"One explanation, which is not wrong, is that convection forces raise everything to the top, then strand big particles at the top." [hippo, Jan 14 2008]
[link]
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This will not fail to be unsuccessful.
The fragmentation of a cereal flake is,
essentially, a stochastic and quantum-
like event. If you monitor any given
flake, the time at which it will decay is
entirely unpredictable. Nevertheless,
the overall process is such that a large
collection of flakes in a packet will have
a characteristic half-life. Hence, after
one half-life interval, 50% of the flakes
will have disintegrated. After a further
half-life interval, 50% of those
remaining (75% in total) will have
disintegrated, and so on. There is no
way to tell when the very last flake will
disintegrate, though probabilistic
inferences can be made. |
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The reason it's always the bits in the
bottom that are broken is very simple:
small fragments generated throughout
the corpus of the packet invariably
settle through the gaps in their intact
brethren, and hence accumulate at the
bottom. There is a 1/e phenomenon at
work, obviously. |
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So, your suggestion of placing some
pre-pulverised flakes at the bottom of
the packet is rather like trying to slow
the decay of strontium-90 by adding a
dose of yttrium-90, alas. |
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Use cereal dust in your next tempura, schnitzel, or similarly fried item, coating. Rice cereals go well with tempura, corns with schnitzel type, wheats, well with anything. Or wait for the world to stop spinning. That way gravity will relax, or invert, (as per [zen_tom]) and then the dust will be evenly spread throughout your cereal box. Of course, you will be equally spread out upon your ceiling. |
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Manufacturers should be mandated to advertise the half-life of the cereal contained. |
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// mixing with milk produces an unappetising mud-like substance. // |
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Who's calling mud 'unappetising'?? |
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Eat cereal like Weetabix, it's in a compressed form, made from small flakes, so it doesn't disintegrate so easily. It's a UK product, but I'm a US person, and I find it easily here. |
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Simple solution: open the cereal package starting at the bottom. This will mix the dust and crumbs in with the whole flakes, making them less noticeable. |
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8th, isn't that how Pringles were invented? |
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UB - tell the kids it's candy (which wouldn't be far from the truth if it's a sugar-coated cereal to begin with). |
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My aunt doesn't keep pigeons. |
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But the dust is my favorite part. |
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//[MB] The reason it's always the bits in the bottom that are broken is very simple: small fragments generated throughout the corpus of the packet invariably settle through the gaps in their intact brethren, and hence accumulate at the bottom.// - Otherwise known as the "Brazil Nut Effect" (see links) - a fantasticaly subtle interplay of
inter-aggregate convection currents and how these act on particles within the aggregate of different sizes. |
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"Packed by weight, not volume. Contents may settle during transit" |
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This idea is based on questionable premises. - |
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This idea has been *posted* on questionable premises |
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8th of 7: around here, contents unsettle.
dbmag: if this actually works, will we start seeing sacrificial eggs in egg cartons, etc.? |
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Wouldn't sacrificing eggs be some form of idolatry, like burnt offerings ? Or just an overcooked breakfast ? |
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Skiers and skydivers could carry a little
bag of broken bones. |
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... formerly known as their "legs" |
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I was interested to learn of the Brazil Nut Effect, however, I thought the Flake Half-life explanation was far, far more poignant. |
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Until about halfway through this idea, I thought this would be a plan to create some sort of dough from the remaining cereal dust. |
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//This idea has been *posted* on questionable premises// |
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I was not clear if the proposed flour packet was supposed to work via physical principles, or supernatural principles. |
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We have no truck with the supernatural here. |
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But there are a few mopeds. |
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Is there an echo in here? |
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"No answer" came the stern reply ..... |
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