The Great Cereal Box Debate (repost)

Couldnt think of anything good today and I am sleepy so I'm reposting one of my favorites from a while back. My friend Chad asked me to figure out the best way to open a cereal box. The very scientific results are below.

Recently I was asked to do some research and determine which method was best for opening a cereal bag. (Just for clarification, I am talking about the bag inside the box--not the giant bag that sits on the bottom shelf feeling lonely).

So my options were as follows:
1) Open the entire bag for "maximum flow"
2) Open only a corner of the bag for "increased flow control"

Suddenly it sounds like I am blogging about Maxipads.

Anyway. I did some research IE: playing with cereal for about 10 minutes.

Ok. So I obtained a box of cereal (flake variety) and began with the "one corner technique". Here is a brief cost benefit analysis on this method.

Benefits:
1) As previously mentioned, cereal flow was under control, my aim remained steady and I was able to adequately pour the desired amount into my bowl.
2) I was able to successfully close the bag with a neat fold and had no worries about the cereal being stale the next time I wanted some.
Costs:
1) Compared to the "wide open" method, this approach did in fact take more time. I estimate this time to be approximately 3 seconds per bowl. 3 seconds is no big deal you say? Well, assuming an average person eats 1 bowl of cereal 4 out of 7 days (this is a modest estimate I think) this person would lose 12 seconds per week. No big deal you say? Well over an average cereal eating lifetime-- age 8 to 77-- (I assume that under the age of 8 someone else is pouring the cereal and 77 is a fairly universally used life expectancy) a cereal eater could waste nearly 12 hours of his/her life pouring cereal. Seriously, I did the math twice. Thats alot of pouring.

Ok now for the "Let it fly bag wide open method"
Benefits:
1) As I mentioned above, this method is much quicker and could save you alot of time over your life.
2) I found it much easier to open the entire bag vs just the corner.

Costs:
1) While this method did allow me to fill my bowl quicker, I did lose a few flakes onto the counter while doing so. In each trial between 5 and 7 flakes found thier way out of the edible realm. Again using the same assumptions, this calculates out to losing between 20 and 28 flakes per week. Over the same predefined cereal pouring span, this equates to 71,760 to 100,464 flakes. What does that mean? Well I counted a serving of cereal and based on my calculations each box contains around 2000 flakes. If this estimate is accurate, by using the "all the way open" method. You would waste 35 to 50 boxes of cereal over your lifetime.

Ok, so you've seen the numbers and to me this argument comes down to what is more important -- time or money. Usually, I think time is more important but in this case I have to chose the "one corner" method simply based on the fact that excluding inflation the open mouth version would cost me between $140 and $200 over the course of my life. This could be in a 401k or something.

Please keep in mind that my experiment was done with flake cereal, O style cereal with marshmallows or whatever may have different numerical results but I assume the overall theme would carry over.

So in conclusion, in my opinion, the more frugal method that enables increased flow control is better over the long run. If you are in such a big hurry when pouring cereal that you cant spare 3 seconds you need to wake up earlier.