A random observation

Today, I stopped and bought a box of Reese's® pieces® (yes, the "p" in pieces® is lowercase.) on my way back from lunch so that I would have something to keep me occupied while making updates to my employer's website. When I opened the box, I got this crazy idea of a theory in my head and decided to see if I could prove it.

Reese's® pieces® come in three colors - orange, yellow, and brown. Reese's® packaging, minus any special promotions and the black ink, is colored in the same three colors. Orange is the most prominent, yellow comes in second and brown brings up the rear.

My theory was this - the ratio of the three colors inside the box would directly correspond with the prominence of the colors on the outside of the box. To prove this theory, I would count the number of Reese's® pieces® of each color. In this particular 4 oz box of Reese's® pieces® (I did not eat all of them. I still have half a box) there were 161 individual pieces. The break down is as follows:

Orange - 77 pieces (47.8%)
Brown - 44 pieces (27.3%)
Yellow - 40 pieces (24.8%)

This did not exactly prove my theory. Reese's® packaging is approximately 70-75% orange. Yellow accounts for about about 15-20% of the package's color and brown fills the remaining 5-10%.

However, it does lend itself to the idea that not all colors are equal. Although, this was only one package and a truly scientific study would require evaluation of several hundred packages, I tend to believe that other packages would have a similar outcome based on how heavily orange outpaced the other two colors. Orange, for whatever reason, is obviously the more popular color. Probably because it's Reese's® trademark color.

I propose further study of this issue and challenge all of our readers and followers to lend a hand in this study. Once completed, we can move on to the more complex study of M&Ms®, which have a few more colors and a few more varieties. (We actually did this as kids before they came up with blue, purple and all the holiday colors variations.)

Back to work. Counting Reese's® pieces® may be more fun than my job, but I guess I have to earn some of my paycheck. (And I wonder why I never seem to get anything done.)

(Oh, and if you are from Reese's®, you can mail my endorsement check at your earliest convenience.)