I eat Fruit & Fibre breakfast cereal regularly. It contains cereal flakes, bits of banana, bits of coconut, nuts and, of course, raisins.

I have the problem that, when I eat, the raisins sink, and I have a raisin-free cereal followed by about 20 raisins by themselves.

First I thought you could counter this using a lava-lampesque system - heat the bottom of the bowl so that things go up and down in it due to heat rising and cold falling. But I would not like warm cereal. A design of more complexity is needed.

So, I thought, what about the technique they use to find dead bodies in water? They make a loud noise, and the bodies float up (as in Tom Sawyer). Why not do this with my cereal (although without the dead bodies)? Have the base of the bowl play a specific frequency note (preferably very quietly) so that the raisins float up to the top.

Hey presto, I have mixed-up cereal!
-- dbmag9, Dec 06 2005

Fruit Chute Fruit_20Chute
by me. Deals with in-box, rather than in-bowl, settling. [calum, Dec 07 2005]

Um, have you tried stirring...?
-- DrCurry, Dec 06 2005


You could inject each raisin with a tiny air bubble prior to eating.

What? I'm just saying.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Dec 07 2005


I like [2 fries] bubble idea, heh. But raisins could be injected during processing at the cereal factory. ...On the fence with the frequency thing.
-- Zuzu, Dec 07 2005


Wow...that's the first time I've seen literary reference to the practice of firing a cannon over a body of water to make dead bodies float...against my will I must (+) this.
-- normzone, Dec 07 2005


Did you know that the cannon thing is only an old wive's tale?

How in the world they came up with it, I dont know....
-- DesertFox, Dec 07 2005


You can stun or even kill fish with loud noises (hence dynamite fishing). Perhaps someone misunderstood an instance of that.
-- DrCurry, Dec 07 2005


It's not so much loud noises as intense shock waves. A 7700 m/s detonation velocity overloads lateral lines and ruptures swim bladders.
-- Aq_Bi, Dec 07 2005


I don't want any HE that close to my breakfast - 7km/sec is going to spray milk everywhere.
Bun for the Twain reference - there are lots of odd superstitions in the books, but also some neat observations - like when Huck in drag is "outed" as a male because of his throwing action.
-- coprocephalous, Dec 07 2005


Try carbonated milk.
-- lurch, Dec 07 2005


raisin d'etre
-- xenzag, Dec 07 2005


You know how they have those grapenuts... with the dried nuts and wheat clusters all around the raisins?

Why not just make a cereal that has puffed rice, or puffed corn, or puffed barley all over the raisin. Then the raisins would float. You could mix in some flakes for the main grain source, and the raisins would stay up above them all.
-- ye_river_xiv, Jun 22 2011


Can you not just dip your spoon down to the bottom of the bowl occasionally, when you want a more raisiny mouthful?
-- hippo, Jun 22 2011


Far too simple, [hippo].

The obvious solution is denser milk. Or, to be precise, the obvious answer is a solution of uranium oxide in milk.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 22 2011


heavy milk.
-- FlyingToaster, Jun 22 2011


sp. "flotation"
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jun 23 2011



random, halfbakery