Scientists have known for a long time why Cheerios and other floating objects will cling to each other in a bowl of liquid. Only recently, however, have a few experts created a model for us, the laypeople.
This makes it all sound pretty simple:
“Place a single Cheerio in a bowl of milk, and its weight will cause the milk beneath it to dip slightly, forming a dent in the once-smooth surface of the milk. A second Cheerio placed into the bowl will form its own dent on the surface of the milk, and if the two Cheerios drift close enough to each other, they will appear to "fall into" one another, as if pulled together by an attractive force.
Cheerios near the edge of the bowl float upwards along the curve of the meniscus to look like they're clinging the edge of the bowl.
In both cases, the movements of the Cheerios are determined more by the geometry of the surface of the milk than by any attractive force acting between them.”
The MSNBC story, linked below, has the full explanation.
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