How About It, Kellogg's? (Part II)

Companies should be required to post the Floating Coefficient of breakfast cereals on the box

Ah, yes.  The seldom-referenced Floating Coefficient.  Often symbolized by a lower-case Greek letter Eta, it represents the ratio of amount of a buoyant object above the liquid surface to below.  Very useful in nautical engineering, but applicable in culinary fields as well.  

Right you are.  So, we've all had this problem: You pour yourself a nice bowl of cereal, then you pour in some milk, causing all of the cereal to rise and promptly dump out all over the table.  Not only annoying in that you now have to clean up a mess, but you either lose cereal or have to eat it dry out of your hand.  Boo.

All of this nonsense could have been avoided if you knew in advance how much your cereal would float before you put the milk in.  You could then adjust the amount of cereal in the bowl to account for the additional milk space required.  As you know, it varies from cereal to cereal.  For example, "Life" cereal doesn't float at all, so you can fill your bowl right to the brim with cereal and add in milk with no danger of spillage, whereas Rice Krispies are mostly air, and float about as well as a beach ball.   

Using these examples, the math is actually quite easy.  "Life" cereal will remain entirely below the milk's surface, since it has a Floating Coefficient of 0.  Therefore, when filling your bowl, you have to leave Milk Space, (or Sm) of the volume of milk multiplied by the Floating Coefficient.  Since Eta is zero, milk space is equal to zero.  Boom.  Done!  Rice Krispies, on the other hand have a Floating Coefficient of 8.3, so whatever volume of milk you plan to add, you have to leave 83% of that space empty at the top of the bowl, or else you will spill cereal.  

Turns out not to matter in most cases, since you just fill the bowl regardless of cereal type and just make a mess, but I like to believe that with a little extra information, and the ability to make a better cereal choice, a lot of this can be avoided.  If you knew in advance that 60% of your cereal would float above the milk surface, you would leave a little extra room at the top.  But since the Floating Coefficient is left entirely hidden by the cereal manufacturers, spillage is all too common.  What is it these factories don't want you to know?  Do they want you to waste cereal?  Are they working in conjunction with dairy farmers to destroy breakfast?  Do I like asking conspiracy-theory type rhetorical questions?  Since the government isn't about to step in, I think it's up to the people to stand up.  Demand that your cereal's floating coefficient be displayed prominently on the box!  Your breakfast depends on it.