Why do my Cheerios in milk act like magnets with different polarities causing them to repel or attract each other?
In: Physics
Milk likes milk more than it likes air. When a cheerio floats on milk, it has milk in/on it, which attracts* the other milk molecules and pulls them up. You can see the surface of the milk curves up to meet the cheerio.
When you have 2 cheerios, the curved parts like each other more than they like air, so they behave like magnets.
* I’m not sure if “attraction” is the right word here, it’s more that the milk is taking the path of least resistance.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheerios_effect
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