Solving World Crises with 15 Foot Weetabix – Anonymous

This idea is the product of conversation, one half of which was drunk, which took place in a pub in Oxford, 'round about during the June/July 2007 UK floods. It is, therefore, no cause for surprise that this is one of the more well thought out ideas…

The Idea

A Weetabix is a fairly absorbent thing; in fact a normal 4 inch one can absorb maybe about 150ml of milk. Using a simple bit of maths, scaling all the dimensions, a 15 foot Weetabix, which is 45 time the length, could absorb about 13700 litres.

Instead of using it to absorb milk, it could be used to absorb floodwater, and so with enough of them, all the excess floodwater could be mopped up and gotten rid of. It doesn't end there, however…

A Weetabix is also a rather nutritious cereal, containing fibre, protein, and a fair few vitamins and minerals. This means that the 15 foot Weetabix, along with all the water it has soaked up, could be used to end both world hunger, and world drought.

The Problem

David: Here is the problem My Maths btw not yinder yee steven's (the guy behind some of the maths above)

A pack of Weetabix is approximately 99p and you get 12, so 1 Weetabix costs 8.25p pretty cheap until you work out how much for 1 15 foot Weetabix which is 45 * 45 * 45 times bigger so 1 costs 751781.25p or £7517.81 and a bit but since you can only buy them in packs of 12 a pack of 12 45 foot Weetabix costs £90213.75 not so cheap and I don’t think you’ll get them from ASDA possibly an American Wal-Mart in the snacks section but not in the UK.

So this idea was not well thought out.