Date: Sun, 24 Dec 1995 09:36:05 -0500 (EST)
From: Brian Hagen
Newsgroups: alt.cereal,alt.cesium
Subject: Re: Rice Crispies sound


Pholos Pegasus wrote:

>An alternate theory holds that what you're hearing is the noise produced by 
>the countless tiny meniscii that the milk forms in the pockets of the cereal.  
>As the milk wets the cereal, each meniscus advances very suddenly, producing a 
>'snap' sound.  The sound is more pronounced in those very starchy (hence 
>resistant to wetting) cereals with large, open spaces in their structure, 
>such as Rice Crispies (cut one open and look at it under a magnifier).  
>This theory, however, while it deals adequately with the snapping, fails to 
>account for the crackling and popping, which is why serious scientists prefer 
>the cesium explanation.
>
>I hope this clarifies the question for you.

   I believe I read once that the "popping" is actually the sound of the
internal chambers of the Rice Krispies, their walls much thinner than the
outer shell of the Krispie, imploding under the pressure of the milk.  The
article went on to say that a child had actually been seriously injured
when a rhythmic series of implosions set the milk to vibrating at its
resonance frequency, hurling the spoon into the face of the hapless
breakfaster and damaging an eye.  Of course, this was on the back of a
package of Cheerios, so I suppose it might not be the most reliable of
information.  All the same, I make sure to thoroughly crush my Rice
Krispies with a mortar & pestle before eating them, just in case.  The
article didn't mention what caused the crackling, though.  I always
suspected it had something to do with Rice Krispies picking up radio
waves, but that's just a theory.