Consider, if you will, that classic breakfast cereal, Raisin Bran. A Raisin Bran raisin is heavier than a Raisin Bran flake. Logic dictates that heavy things ought to fall to the bottom of the box. However, when we examine a box of Raisin Bran, we find to our surprise (and delight, of course, because we love raisins) that the raisins are evenly distributed throughout! How so? Are the raisins cunningly charged with mutually repellent magnetic forces so they space themselves uniformly? Or does Kellogg’s just put the raisins in last, counting on the ham-handedness of the shipping clerks to jostle them evenly through the cereal by the time it gets to your breakfast table? –Ed, Los Angeles
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An idle mind, Edward, is the devil’s workshop. There’s no great mystery. Bran flakes are fairly dense, and they pack themselves close together in the package, preventing the raisins from moving. Kellogg’s simply mixes the flakes and raisins together when filling each box, and they stay that way during shipping without much internal migration.
Pretty soon we’ll be starting a new decade (since, as all educated people realize, decades start with a one, not a zero). This got me wondering. AD 1991 means “in the year of our Lord 1991.” When did this system start? I assume that after Christ was crucified, it wasn’t just a matter of people saying, “Truly, he was the Son of God. Better renumber the calendar.” What numbering system did Christ’s contemporaries use? –Rob Rodi, Chicago
