Sock drawer problem
snopes
>> . . . if you have 50 white socks and 50 black socks in a drawer, you only
>> have to pull out 3 before you get a matching pair
> That's not the question we're discusing here, we don't know how many
> different kinds of socks there are. Your assuming only two colors of
> socks, but we're talking about a case where there are <n> colors of
> socks, not just two.
Note: I'm adding some of the math groups, because this has gotten out
of the realm of folklore:
Before I answer this, let me restate the problem because it's become a
little confusing along the way: You have a drawer containing some quantity
of sock pairs; you don't know how many pairs of socks are in the drawer
(other than that there are two or more pairs), nor do you know now many
different colors of socks are in the drawer. If it were dark and you
couldn't see the contents of your sock drawer, what number of socks
would you have to pull out of the drawer before being assured you had
a matching pair of socks?
Look, you can apply the sames principles as the contiguous map problem
here. (You know, if you want to color a map such that no contiguous
countries are the same color, what is the maximum number of colors you
would need? Answer: four) Thus, you need only pull *five* socks out of
the drawer before you can be assured having a matching pair. Let's say
you pulled out four socks from the drawer, all of which had been
touching each other. If you pulled out a fifth sock which had been
touching the other four, yet whose color didn't match any of them, you would
be disproving the contiguous map problem, which has already been proven
true. (The 'map' proof is too lengthy to include here, but it's in many
math textbooks.)
So the answer is five. See? Simple.
- snopes
-------------------------------------------------
Q: What has an IQ of 104?
A: Six Norwegians.
justin struby
: So the answer is five. See? Simple.
So if you have two yellow socks, one red, one white, one blue, and one
green, you think you'd be assured of two yellow socks after yanking
five of the six socks? I'll sort my own socks, thanks. =)
/-----------------------------------------------------------------
/ Justin B. Struby / Actuarial science is more than
/ jst...@unlinfo.unl.edu / just a matter of life and death!
/ University of Nebraska - USA / 85 SOA credits... hire me? :)
Bernhard Muenzer
[ snopes is linking the matching socks problem to map coloring problem ]
|
| So the answer is five. See? Simple.
Unfortunately, this is not true.
I agree that you only need 4 colours to color a flat map.
So your conclusion only holds as long as the socks are lying flat
on the bottom of the drawer. However, socks have a tendency to move
around in the drawer as soon as you are not watching them, and you
will find that you can't map them on a flat surface anymore.
Furthermore, there is the vanishing sock problem.
This has been first reported from laundromats, which frequently
"swallow" socks. The owners of these facilities have long been
suspected of making extra profit on the socks they secretly take out
of the laundring machines while they are running.
This theory now ranks as Fb among UL researchers.
Though some black sheep among laundromat operators may exist, they
can't account for the sheer number of missing socks. Furthermore,
the black market for socks would have completely collapsed if all
the missing socks had resurfaced there.
The truth is that socks create a distortion of space around them.
In a laundring machine, the rapid revolutions give rise to a
vorticity field that, in the presence of socks distorting the
Euclidean space even further, can create a wormhole in space that
completely sucks in the sock.
Electric driers don't revolve as quick as laundry machines; that's
why the missing socks effect is far more frequent in washing
machines than in driers, though the effect has also been reported
from drying machines.
Unfortunately, most washing machines are rotating clockwise when
they have their highest speed. Thus, the Coriolis effect even adds
to the vorticity of the machine and makes sock disappearance more
probable. Designers, retailers and consumers shound take care to use
only counter-clockwise running washing machines. The remaining
clockwise operating machines can still be sold on the southern
hemisphere.
Drawers are a different matter altogether. Since there is usually
no externally added vorticity, one should assume that socks couldn't
vanish from drawers.
However, if the socks are scattered irregularly in the drawer, they
have the tendency to gradually rearrange in a pattern with a non-zero
vorticity. If there are enough socks in the drawer, they will soon
maximise the static vorticity of the pattern.
A static vorticity field will of course not suffice to create a
permanent wormhole in space, but it is enough to make the probability
of the quantum dynamic wave function of the sock tunneling through
the vorticity nonzero. This means that socks can spontaneously
disappear from drawers.
Here is where the map coloring problem gets in. Any wormhole occuring
on a flat surface will change its topological gender. This also
means that the dimension of the Euclidean space it is embedded in
is subject to abrupt changes. Especially if the surface loses its
orientation (which is quite common with drawers full of socks), it
cannot be embedded in 3-dimensional Euclidean space any more, but only
in 4-dimensional space.
An added problem is the erraneousity of the occurence of the holes.
This makes for spontaneous changes in the dimension of the space
it is embedded in, which means the averaged minimum dimension of
the embedding space is neither 3 nor 4, but fractal.
Now you just can't colour a map with fractal dimension.
Corollary: in any drawer that has been filled with socks long enough,
whatever number of socks you take out you can never be sure
to get a matching pair.
b "of course, this can also be proved using p-adics" m
--
int m,u,e=0;float l,_,I;main(){for(;e<1863;putchar((++e>923&&952>
e?60-m:u)["\n)ed.fsg@eum(rezneuM drahnreB"]))for(u=_=l=0;(m=e%81)
<80&&I*l+_*_<6&&20>++u;_=2*l*_+e/81*.09-1,l=I)I=l*l-_*_-2+m/27.;}
Johan Braennlund
: al...@frisbee.analog.com (Alexander Graham) writes:
: - snopes
: -------------------------------------------------
:
:
snopes
: So if you have two yellow socks, one red, one white, one blue, and one
: green, you think you'd be assured of two yellow socks after yanking
: five of the six socks? I'll sort my own socks, thanks. =)
Sigh. This is why I went to the effort of restating the problem
clearly, to avoid answers like this. Oh, well.
We are talking about <n> PAIRS of socks, not <n> socks.
If you had two yellow socks, one PAIR of red, one PAIR of white, one
PAIR of blue, and one PAIR of green, you would be assured of having
a pair of SOME color after yanking out five.
If you really only own six socks, four of which have no matching partner,
you probably should let someone else start sorting your socks for you,
or at least check the laundry room after you're done.
- snopes
snopes
: Well, let n denote the number of sock-pairs; someone has already
: probably pointed out that of the 2n socks in the drawer you could
: pull out n socks by taking one from each pair; if they are all
: different colors, this means none of them match. Of course, the
: (n+1)st will have to be a match.
n = number of pairs of socks in drawer
let n = 4
2n = 8 = number of individual socks in drawer
n + 1 = 5 = number of socks pulled before finding a match
QED. You need to pull only five socks.
: Someone already gave you a counterexample, so I will just point
: out that the four-color theorem only applies to *planer* maps.
So? We're talking about socks, not maps. It doesn't matter
whether they're solid, argyle, striped, or whatever.
- snopes
snopes
: The four-color theorem certainly doesn't apply in this case, but
: that's not the reason. Snopes apparently interprets the four-color
: theorem to say that you CAN'T color a map with more than four colors.
: This is obviously absurd: I can color a map with as many colors as I
: like (up to the limits set by the number of countries in the map and
: the number of crayons I have).
That's irrelevant. You don't have a choice of coloring the "map"
in this case, because the socks are already colored. You have
to work with what's in the drawer; you don't get to use as few or as
many colors as you want. That has already been decided for you, thus
taking the number of colors out of the equation.
: Look, Snopes, suppose I have a million pairs of socks of a million
: different colors. I put my hand in the drawer and pull out five
: socks. Are you really willing to guarantee me that there will be a
: matched pair among them?
This is just silly. First of all, the human eye is not capable of
distinguishing a million different colors. And even if it were, where
the hell would you find a drawer that could hold a million pairs of
socks? This is an applied problem; trying to turn it into some fanciful
theoretical thing that doesn't work in a made-up word where our physical
laws don't apply is lame.
- snopes
Michael Kagalenko
]: Look, Snopes, suppose I have a million pairs of socks of a million
]: different colors. I put my hand in the drawer and pull out five
]: socks. Are you really willing to guarantee me that there will be a
]: matched pair among them?
]
] This is just silly. First of all, the human eye is not capable of
] distinguishing a million different colors. And even if it were, where
] the hell would you find a drawer that could hold a million pairs of
] socks? This is an applied problem; trying to turn it into some fanciful
] theoretical thing that doesn't work in a made-up word where our physical
] laws don't apply is lame.
This guy is trolling. No one can be that stupid. Please, do not encourage
him by replying.
-Stewart,G.M.
justin struby <jst...@unlinfo.unl.edu> wrote:
>snopes (sno...@netcom.com) wrote:
>: So the answer is five. See? Simple.
>
>So if you have two yellow socks, one red, one white, one blue, and one
>green, you think you'd be assured of two yellow socks after yanking
>five of the six socks? I'll sort my own socks, thanks. =)
Hey, if I have two yellow socks, there's no way one of them will
be red, one white, one blue and another green! That adds up to
four out of two yellow socks being different colors!
Is this a trick question?
GMS
-Stewart,G.M.
>
> >> . . . if you have 50 white socks and 50 black socks in a drawer, you only
> >> have to pull out 3 before you get a matching pair
[...]
> Q: What has an IQ of 104?
> A: Six Norwegians.
No fair choosing the Norwegians.
And if this kind of insensitivity toward Norwegians and Geeks
continues, might I remind you all of the quote, "Then they came
for the Umbrella-Heads, but I wasn't an Umbrella-Head, so I
silently threw fish."
GMS
James L. Coffey
What difference does it make if socks match? I also roll my socks, but 2
out of three wind up mismatched.
Of course, when I pull a sock out of my three sock drawer, she looks
and says "It's a good thing you didn't pick this one and shows me a
missmatched sock pair". She then points to the drawer containing the
remaining pair (of my three) and gives me the chance of switching my
choice before I look at either. She claims I should always take the
remaining pair because of because I have a 50-50 chance of being right,
as opposed to my original chance of 2 out of 3. I'm no statistician,
but that can't possibly be right.
Jim
Support HR8580 "The Free Internet Bill" Don't let the info superhighway
become another troll road run by gov't. Call you representative today!
David Rysdam
>justin struby (jst...@unlinfo.unl.edu) wrote:
>: So if you have two yellow socks, one red, one white, one blue, and one
>: green, you think you'd be assured of two yellow socks after yanking
>: five of the six socks? I'll sort my own socks, thanks. =)
> Sigh. This is why I went to the effort of restating the problem
> clearly, to avoid answers like this. Oh, well.
> We are talking about <n> PAIRS of socks, not <n> socks.
> If you had two yellow socks, one PAIR of red, one PAIR of white, one
> PAIR of blue, and one PAIR of green, you would be assured of having
> a pair of SOME color after yanking out five.
Count again, Sunny Jim.
Sock #1: Yellow.
Sock #2: Red.
Sock #3: White.
Sock #4: Blue.
Sock #5: Green.
That's five socks. Where the pair of one color?
--
-- David Rysdam's .sig of the day is:
Give me a Plumber's friend the size of the Pittsburgh dome, and a place
to stand, and I will drain the world.
Benjamin J. Tilly
mckn...@ix.netcom.com (Lawrence McKnight) writes:
[...]
> The point is not that the four color theorem applies only to planar maps.. it
> is that the MINIMUM necessary is four. It does not require that only four
> be used. One must assume that snopes had his tongue inserted firmly into his
> cheek.
I would assume the existence of a line with bait. Though the line might
have broken by now with the size of the catch...
Ben Tilly
The Right Reverend Master Tweek
>
>Sock #1: Yellow.
>Sock #2: Red.
>Sock #3: White.
>Sock #4: Blue.
>Sock #5: Green.
>
>That's five socks. Where the pair of one color?
Yellow and Blue make Green. That'f four socks, two of them green.
--
tw...@io.com tw...@tweekco.ness.com WW4Net-1@11551 DoD #MCMLX N6QYA
**** Regarding the Internet><WWIVNet gateway and other assorted stuff: ****
http://io.com/user/tweek/homepage.html IM: Michael D. Maxfield
-Stewart,G.M.
Stephanie Smilay <step...@netcom.com> wrote:
>-Stewart,G.M. (gm...@usgp1.ih.att.com) wrote:
>: > Q: What has an IQ of 104?
>: > A: Six Norwegians.
>: No fair choosing the Norwegians.
>: And if this kind of insensitivity toward Norwegians and Geeks
>: continues, might I remind you all of the quote, "Then they came
>: for the Umbrella-Heads, but I wasn't an Umbrella-Head, so I
>: silently threw fish."
>
This little metal scraper dealie, why?
GMS
Lawrence McKnight
>
>Lawrence McKnight (mckn...@ix.netcom.com) wrote:
>
>
>: The point is not that the four color theorem applies only to planar maps.. it
>: is that the MINIMUM necessary is four. It does not require that only four
>: be used. One must assume that snopes had his tongue inserted firmly into his
>: cheek.
>
>Yes...but _which_ cheek?
>
I think a discussion of -which- cheek involves a convention concerning the
identification of two indistinguishable cheeks. Should this thread be joined
to the one about sqrt(i)=+/-1?
NOte: I have dropped the cross-posts because we certainly don't want the
sqrt(i) stuff propagating down the information superhighway, do we?
--
----------------------------------------------------------
Larry McKnight...........
Robert
p...@directory.yale.edu (Public Cluster Macintosh) writes:
>In article <snopesCy...@netcom.com>, sno...@netcom.com (snopes) wrote:
>I hope you're not serious.
>
>My drawers happen to be toroidal, so I believe I would need to pull out
>eight socks before being "assured" of a pair. Such are the disadvantages
>of buying furniture from Atari :-{)
Really? My drawers all have topological modulus 4 (two holes for the legs,
one for the waist, and one for the winky.) - Robert.
--
For a good time call GetCurrentTime() <ie...@csv.warwick.ac.uk>
Bernhard Muenzer
| In article <38iqni$r...@cony.gsf.de>, m...@cony.gsf.de (Bernhard Muenzer) writes:
[..]
| > Corollary: in any drawer that has been filled with socks long enough,
| > whatever number of socks you take out you can never be sure
| > to get a matching pair.
| At last, an explanation for disappearing socks! Can you also explain why
| only one of a pair of socks ever disappears (with or without invoking
| coriolis forces and maps)?
This is just a trivial corollary to my corollary.
Even wormholes in space have problems finding a matching pair.
b "so they keep on trying" m
Robert Low
>: So the answer is five. See? Simple.
>
>
>So if you have two yellow socks, one red, one white, one blue, and one
>green, you think you'd be assured of two yellow socks after yanking
>five of the six socks? I'll sort my own socks, thanks. =)
No, no, no. The original problem assumed the sock came in pairs,
so in fact, if you have two yellow, two red, two white, two blue,
and two green socks you're guaranteed of having a pair after removing
five of them.
(Anybody who thinks a remark like that requires a smiley is in
need of a humour-transplant. The fact that I make this comment
says a lot about my general impression of Usenet...)
--
Robert Low email(JANET): Rob...@cov.ac.uk
smail : Mathematics Division, Coventry University,
Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, England.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
Chris Fishel
> In article <38iqni$r...@cony.gsf.de>, m...@cony.gsf.de (Bernhard Muenzer) writes:
>
> At last, an explanation for disappearing socks! Can you also explain why
> only one of a pair of socks ever disappears (with or without invoking
> coriolis forces and maps)?
>
It's due to the Pauli Excluusion Principle: since the production
of the wormholes thru which the socks disappear is a quantum phenomenon,
the socks cannot have the same eigenstates. Therefore only one of the
socks in a pair can go down a given wormhole.
Chris "Unless they're Schroedinger's socks in which case half of each sock
in a pair can disappear" Fishel
Angi Long
>Hey, if I have two yellow socks, there's no way one of them will
>be red, one white, one blue and another green! That adds up to
>four out of two yellow socks being different colors!
But since we can prove inductively that all socks are the same
color, it must be true that all those colors are equivalent, and
we need only ever pull two socks out of any drawer.
(Where is it written that you always have to wear matching socks,
anyway?)
Angi Long
>sno...@netcom.com (snopes) writes:
>> Look, you can apply the sames principles as the contiguous map problem
>> here. (You know, if you want to color a map such that no contiguous
>> countries are the same color, what is the maximum number of colors you
>> would need? Answer: four)
> Someone already gave you a counterexample, so I will just point
> out that the four-color theorem only applies to *planer* maps.
If that was the case, it would only be necessary to lay the socks out
on the floor in the form of a planar map. Lay out the first four
socks touching each other, and the next sock must match one of the
four, or violate the four-color theorem.
(Of course the four-color theorem only says that any map CAN be
colored with four colors, not that all maps ARE colored that way.
But if we combine it with the all-horses-are-the-same-color theorem,
we discover that in fact, all map sections are also the same color,
and therefore only one color is needed for any map.)
Brad Majors-Asshole
map proof. It seems to me that the map theorum doesn't apply, and the
true answer is n+1 socks are needed to get a match when there are n colors
of socks. For example, if there are white, blue, green, red, brown,
black, purple, and grey socks (I know, white and grey and black aren't
really colors, but deal with it). So I could conceivably pull out one of
each of these socks in order, and it wouldn't be until I took out a ninth
sock that I am guaranteed a match. I remember going over the map problem
once, but I don't remember it anymore. Perhaps it does apply and I am
just being moronic. But I don't believe that the answer is five, and I
don't see it, and it doesn't seem simple that it's five. It seems simple
that it's n+1. Please explain all the flaws in my logic (but no flames!)
>
> So the answer is five. See? Simple.
>
> - snopes
>
> -------------------------------------------------
>
> Q: What has an IQ of 104?
> A: Six Norwegians.
>
>
>
______________________________________________________________________________
| Ethan Weker | "Divided we stand, together we rise" |
| ewe...@abacus.bates.edu | -Marillion, White Feather |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lawrence McKnight
I did not realize that the Universal Lemma had been extended to socks.
I had presented the result for horses.
(By the way, I first learned about induction on the 4th floor of the Bannon
building.)
--
----------------------------------------------------------
Larry McKnight...........
Stephen M. Webb
> little confusing along the way: You have a drawer containing some quantity
> of sock pairs; you don't know how many pairs of socks are in the drawer
> (other than that there are two or more pairs), nor do you know now many
> different colors of socks are in the drawer. If it were dark and you
> couldn't see the contents of your sock drawer, what number of socks
> would you have to pull out of the drawer before being assured you had
> a matching pair of socks?
>
> Look, you can apply the sames principles as the contiguous map problem
> here. (You know, if you want to color a map such that no contiguous
> countries are the same color, what is the maximum number of colors you
> would need? Answer: four) Thus, you need only pull *five* socks out of
> the drawer before you can be assured having a matching pair. Let's say
> you pulled out four socks from the drawer, all of which had been
> touching each other. If you pulled out a fifth sock which had been
> touching the other four, yet whose color didn't match any of them, you would
> be disproving the contiguous map problem, which has already been proven
> true. (The 'map' proof is too lengthy to include here, but it's in many
> math textbooks.)
>
> So the answer is five. See? Simple.
Too complex. Here's the solution: always sort your socks when you take them
out of the dryer and pair them into balls (put them together, pull the band of
one down over both). You can have as many pairs of socks of as many colours
as you want in a room in complete shadow (even in vacuum, if you don't want
to waken the shadows-in-a-vacuum controversy), and always just have to pull
out two socks to get a matching pair.
The problem with the 4-colour map analogy is if you forget to separate your
socks BEFORE putting them in the washer, the colours can run and you may
find each territory in fact having more than one colour, and certain
contiguous territories might come out with a pinkish hue.
--
Stephen M. Webb ------- Consider Whirled Peas ------- ste...@teleride.on.ca
Canada: a part of the United States where people are so smart they've never
paid any taxes to Washington.
Stephen M. Webb
>In article <38iqni$r...@cony.gsf.de>, m...@cony.gsf.de (Bernhard Muenzer) writes:
>
>
>At last, an explanation for disappearing socks! Can you also explain why
>only one of a pair of socks ever disappears (with or without invoking
>coriolis forces and maps)?
>
>socks, same colour, same style.
I attempted this route. What happens is, in the long run, I am left
with only one sock of the appropriate type. I think this observation should
turn the entire world of disappearing fottware on its head, so to speak.
Here's my theory: socks have a half-life. Given a suitable poisson function
you could calculate, on average, just how long you will be able to wear any
complete pair of socks. Eventually, all your socks will disappear, but you
won't notice when the last one goes (cause it's gone). The goal is now
to calculate the half life of various socks, taking into account materials
(sick vs. cotton/orlon, all-wool, knit rubber with leather and metal studs),
style (toe socks with each of 5 contiguous toes a different colour, knee-highs,
leather socks that go up to your hips, socks that look like bunnies with a
pompon on the heels), and apparent pattern (argyle, solid colour with a green
strip on the toe (the stripe is red when the socks are on inside out).
Steven Winikoff
>Here's my theory: socks have a half-life.
Yes, and when they decay, they emit wire coat hangers. I thought
everyone knew that :-)
- Steven
________________________________________________________________________
Steven Winikoff | smw@ | "I don't want to run the
Software Analyst | alcor.concordia.ca | world; I merely want to own
Computing Services | | a substantial portion of the
Concordia University | (514) 848-7619 | preferred stock" - Alan Dean
Montreal, QC, Canada | (10:00-18:00 EST) | Foster, Cat-A-Lyst
Angi Long
> If you had two yellow socks, one PAIR of red, one PAIR of white, one
> PAIR of blue, and one PAIR of green, you would be assured of having
> a pair of SOME color after yanking out five.
Hmm, let's see... I pull out a yellow one, a red one, a white one,
a blue one, and a green one. Now since each of those socks is, in-
deed, "some color," I do indeed have, not just a pair, but five socks
of some color! Wow, it DOES work!
Merlin
>In article <1994Oct25.160702.1@leif>, <cper...@kean.ucs.mun.ca> wrote:
>>In article <38iqni$r...@cony.gsf.de>, m...@cony.gsf.de (Bernhard Muenzer) writes:
>>
>> [ the Truth on disappearing socks saved for later bandwidth]
>>
>>At last, an explanation for disappearing socks! Can you also explain why
>>only one of a pair of socks ever disappears (with or without invoking
>>coriolis forces and maps)?
>>
>>I am considering replacing all my socks by a large number of identical
>>socks, same colour, same style.
>I attempted this route. What happens is, in the long run, I am left
>with only one sock of the appropriate type. I think this observation should
>turn the entire world of disappearing fottware on its head, so to speak.
>Here's my theory: socks have a half-life. Given a suitable poisson function
>you could calculate, on average, just how long you will be able to wear any
>complete pair of socks.
[...]
The truth is always simple. Your socks disappear. At the same time,
haven't you ever noticed how wire hangers build up in your closet? You
keep throwing them out, they keep building up, socks keep disappearing.
The answer is simplicity itself:
Socks are the larval form of metal wire coat-hangers.
QED
-- Stan "it's all so simple when you think about it." Greene --
+==================================================================+
| Stan Greene | E-Mail: Sorc...@NetCom.com |
| All opinions are solely my own. | or: StanG...@Delphi.com |
| But, they should be yours, too. | or: FlarePistols@10paces |
+==================================================================+
--
> > > Place .signature file here < < <
Eric Hilton Jones
: The truth is always simple. Your socks disappear. At the same time,
: haven't you ever noticed how wire hangers build up in your closet? You
: keep throwing them out, they keep building up, socks keep disappearing.
: The answer is simplicity itself:
: Socks are the larval form of metal wire coat-hangers.
I disagree. If they were the larval form of hangers, then there should
be some form of dead skin left behind. Actually, I think that hangers
*eat* the socks, and in doing so reproduce.
eric jones ehj...@whale.st.usm.edu
-------------------------------------
"It was suffering and impotence - that created all afterworlds; and that
brief madness of happiness that only the greatest sufferer experiences.
Weariness, which wants to reach the ultimate with a single leap, with a
death-leap, a poor ignorant weariness, which no longer wants even to want:
that created all gods and afterworlds."
-Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
John Woodworth
>This morning, having read snopes' amazing result the night before, I
>decided to test it for myself. I reached for five adjacent socks, brought
>them to the window, and examined their colors. Black, brown, white, blue,
>and...my heart was pounding...BROWN! Whew! Reason prevails over nature
>once more. But as I proceeded to put on the pair of brown socks, I noticed
>that one was a knee-high, and the other was ankle-length. DARN! Well, the
>colors matched, so I figured as long as I wasn't wearing shorts...
Commando style, eh?
John
"Pro meo lingua graeca est!"
Eric Bohlman
: >Here's my theory: socks have a half-life. Given a suitable poisson function
: >you could calculate, on average, just how long you will be able to wear any
: >complete pair of socks.
Hmmm... "Half-life" implies an exponential decay model, dS/dt=-kS, or in
other words the more socks you own, the more quickly they disappear. I
actually have anecdotal evidence for this; purchasing a large number of
socks when I run short doesn't improve the situation for more than a
month or two.
: [...]
: The truth is always simple. Your socks disappear. At the same time,
: haven't you ever noticed how wire hangers build up in your closet? You
: keep throwing them out, they keep building up, socks keep disappearing.
: The answer is simplicity itself:
: Socks are the larval form of metal wire coat-hangers.
My situation may be a bit unusual, but for me the coat-hangers behave
just like the socks. This also seems to involve an exponential process,
although the mechanism of acceleration is directly visible; the hangers
that don't vanish eventually succumb to the stress of holding three or
four pairs of pants.
Ted Frank
>If that was the case, it would only be necessary to lay the socks out
>on the floor in the form of a planar map. Lay out the first four
>socks touching each other, and the next sock must match one of the
>four, or violate the four-color theorem.
>
>(Of course the four-color theorem only says that any map CAN be
>colored with four colors, not that all maps ARE colored that way.
>But if we combine it with the all-horses-are-the-same-color theorem,
>we discover that in fact, all map sections are also the same color,
>and therefore only one color is needed for any map.)
Yes, but I have *fewer* than four different colors of socks, so that
can't be right, either.
--
ted frank "Police do not detain people hoping that they will commit
new crimes in their presence; that is not a promising
investigative technique"
-- U.S. v. Pryor, 32 F.3d 1192
Eli Balin
Eric Hilton Jones <ehj...@whale.st.usm.edu> wrote:
>Merlin (sorc...@netcom.com) wrote:
>: The truth is always simple. Your socks disappear. At the same time,
>: haven't you ever noticed how wire hangers build up in your closet? You
>: keep throwing them out, they keep building up, socks keep disappearing.
>: The answer is simplicity itself:
>
>: Socks are the larval form of metal wire coat-hangers.
>
> I disagree. If they were the larval form of hangers, then there should
>be some form of dead skin left behind. Actually, I think that hangers
>*eat* the socks, and in doing so reproduce.
Haven't you ever noticed that the metamorphosis occurs either during or
after laundry days? It's clear that the fuzzy blue stuff in the lint
screens is the remains of not only dead sock-skin, but also that of the
cocoon formed on contact with fabric softener.
Along similar lines, the "dust bunnies" found under sofas represent the
mass parallel dimensions send in exchange for pens.
--
=============================
|E.M. Balin |
|elib...@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu|
=============================
scott goehring
the answer is clearly two, so long as you have an infinite supply of
fabric dye on hand.
Jon Bell
> couldn't see the contents of your sock drawer, what number of socks
> would you have to pull out of the drawer before being assured you had
> a matching pair of socks?
If you pull out two, and they are in a quantum-mechanical singlet state,
you *never* get a matching pair, because of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen
correlations. See "Bertlmann's Socks and the Nature of Reality," by John
S. Bell (no relation to yours truly)... or is it by Bernard d'Espagnat?
I'll look for it in my office tomorrow.
--
Jon Bell <jtb...@presby.edu> Presbyterian College
Dept. of Physics and Computer Science Clinton, South Carolina USA
Christopher Konkel
I have four colors of socks, but can lay down more than 6 without a
matching pair that I can wear.
very few socks (in my drawer)are the same sizes.
CK
Cindy Kandolf
>Haven't you ever noticed that the metamorphosis occurs either during or
>after laundry days? It's clear that the fuzzy blue stuff in the lint
>screens is the remains of not only dead sock-skin, but also that of the
>cocoon formed on contact with fabric softener.
Actually, i've never lost a sock on laundry day. Seriously. My
washing machine (or it could be the dryer) prefers to return them to
me - after chewing holes in them. Perhaps you folks just have
appliances which are more, well, voracious.
Also, my wire hangers do not multiply. Instead, they disappear. So
maybe there's a wormhole between my closet and somebody else's, and
that person is receiving my wire hangers.
>Along similar lines, the "dust bunnies" found under sofas represent the
>mass parallel dimensions send in exchange for pens.
Ever since Kenneth has learned to roll, and has discovered that it's
fun to roll under the sofa (these two events occured about five
minutes apart), we have had much less of a dust bunny problem. I'm
trying not to think about what that means.
-Cindy Kandolf, certified language mechanic, mamma flodnak
ci...@nvg.unit.no
Trondheim, Norway
Oportet Ministros Manus Lavare Antequam Latrinam Relinquent!
J.L. Giannini
posts, tho')
If you make your matching socks into sock balls (by taking the socks and
putting them long sides together, and turning one inside out over the other)
and then put them into your sock drawer, you alwas grab a matched pair.
I wish I had some way of demonstrating, it does't quite work as a verbal
explanation.
Of course, it doesn't work on the socks that go in the washer as a pair and
come out as one lone sock.
My husband works with computers. I asked if he could write me a program,
wherein the dirty socks are mv'd from the floor, piped into the washer,
washed, then go to the drier, then are piped out to the sock drawer. And
maybe it could grep for matched pairs or something. I was very hopeful,
but it doesn't look like it's going to happen.
Jodi 'Sock it to me!' G.
--
Jodi Giannini (gian...@nova.umd.edu)
"This parrot is DEAD!"
"No 'e's not...'e's pining for the fjords..."
(ask me about the rec.pets.birds faq)
Eli Balin
Cindy Kandolf <ci...@nvg.unit.no> wrote:
>Eli Balin writes:
>
>>Along similar lines, the "dust bunnies" found under sofas represent the
>>mass parallel dimensions send in exchange for pens.
>
>Ever since Kenneth has learned to roll, and has discovered that it's
>fun to roll under the sofa (these two events occured about five
>minutes apart), we have had much less of a dust bunny problem. I'm
>trying not to think about what that means.
You are immensely lucky. Kenneth (you didn't specify whether he was a
pet or a child) is one of very few who are fighting to preserve the
integrity of our universe. By rolling under the sofa, he is preventing
dimensional gateways from opening, and preventing the incursion of aliens
who want our office supplies. If your pens are still disappearing,
however, Kenneth is waging true hostility against the Pen Thieves, as the
imbalance created by the addition of pens without the removal of dust
bunnies will destroy their universe in a very short period of time.
Kevan Davis
>
> the answer is clearly two, so long as you have an infinite supply of
> fabric dye on hand.
But where would you keep it? :)
/<ev
--"God's truth. Saw a film. Nests." "That's birds."
Malcolm Bebb
Giannini) wrote:
> It looks like mostly men on this thread! (I may have missed some women's
> posts, tho')
>
> If you make your matching socks into sock balls (by taking the socks and
> putting them long sides together, and turning one inside out over the other)
> and then put them into your sock drawer, you alwas grab a matched pair.
Know exactly what you mean, but you're missing the point. Before you can
do that, you have to find a pair to start with. Once you've got a pair,
you can arrange to keep it that way. First, find your pair - that's the
hard bit :-)
Malcolm be...@ferndown.ate.slb.com (Usual disclaimers apply)
Tech Pubs be...@embetech.demon.co.uk
Paul Choi
Nathan Parker
: >
(SNIP-SNIP)
: Stephen M. Webb ------- Consider Whirled Peas ------- ste...@teleride.on.ca
Youse guys have been smelling your socks too long:
The answer is: (chose one)
1. Buy all socks the same.
2. Wash laundry in a college dorm (so that everything soon becomes
one color).
3. Trade e all socks on the NEW YORK SOCK EXCHANGE until you trade for
one which matches one that you hold.
4. Wear longer pants.(noone e can see the socks anyway)
5. Become an absent minded professor so that noone expects your
socks to match.
6. Forget it!
Opusculum typed herefrom by: Nathan Parker, Damen branch staff and
or patrons should never be considered as the official views of:
THE CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY (312) 744-6022 -nai...@mcs.com
Angi Long
moo...@muvms6.wvnet.edu
> al...@frisbee.analog.com (Alexander Graham) writes:
>
> >> . . . if you have 50 white socks and 50 black socks in a drawer, you only
> >> have to pull out 3 before you get a matching pair
>
> > That's not the question we're discusing here, we don't know how many
> > different kinds of socks there are. Your assuming only two colors of
> > socks, but we're talking about a case where there are <n> colors of
> > socks, not just two.
>
> Note: I'm adding some of the math groups, because this has gotten out
> of the realm of folklore:
>
> little confusing along the way: You have a drawer containing some quantity
> of sock pairs; you don't know how many pairs of socks are in the drawer
> (other than that there are two or more pairs), nor do you know now many
> couldn't see the contents of your sock drawer, what number of socks
> would you have to pull out of the drawer before being assured you had
> a matching pair of socks?
>
sock PAIRS. Let f(x) = minimum number of socks that need to be withdrawn
to be assured of receiving at least one pair. Now, f(x) > x/2 because of
extreme cases. Namely, if there is exactly one pair of each color, pulling
out x/2 socks may result in having one sock of each color.
The number of colors is <= x/2 since the colors appear in pairs.
If x/2 + 1 socks were drawn out, there would be more socks pulled out then
there are colors, so at least two of the socks pulled out would be of the
same color. Since x/2 does not work and since x/2 + 1 does, f(x) = x/2 + 1.
Phil Moore
Articulate Mandible
[infinite supply of fabric dye?]
>But where would you keep it? :)
In a bag of holding, of course.
--
Artie the Hinged Jaw
"Sobriety, water, and fish. There you have it."
Scott Hampton
Honeybucket
they are currently wearing and put them in the drawer!
So the correct answer would be:
n = number of pairs
let n = 4
2n = 8 = number of socks
add 2 for the old pair
2n + 1 + 1 = socks needed for match
:-)
--
Jeremy Rule Common Destiny
ru...@tahoma.cwu.edu (509)962-3750 V.FC
aka Honeybucket Excalibur!
Stephen M. Webb
Eric Bohlman <eboh...@netcom.com> wrote:
>Merlin (sorc...@netcom.com) wrote:
>
>: Socks are the larval form of metal wire coat-hangers.
>
>My situation may be a bit unusual, but for me the coat-hangers behave
>just like the socks. This also seems to involve an exponential process,
>although the mechanism of acceleration is directly visible; the hangers
>that don't vanish eventually succumb to the stress of holding three or
>four pairs of pants.
The key here is leftovers in your refrigerator.
leftovers' larvae are dust bunnies
dustbunnies eat coathangers
well-fed dustbunnies pupate as socks
mature socks become more leftovers in the refrigerator
A leftover that is ripe with eggs tends to grow green or blue fur. When the
eggs (the fur) is laid, it turns greyish brown, and the ovipositor of the
leftovers becomes whitish and leaks a red liquid (the corpus rosea). The
eggs are sloughed off and collect under beds and other furniture, especially
behind the fridge.
Compare dryer lint with the furry coating found on many leftovers in your
refrigerator sometime. Immature reproductive systems.
Charles Martin
> Merlin (sorc...@netcom.com) wrote:
>
> : >Here's my theory: socks have a half-life.
> Hmmm... "Half-life" implies an exponential decay model, dS/dt=-kS, or in
>
> : Socks are the larval form of metal wire coat-hangers.
>
In one of Roy Blount Jr's books he covers the subject. One of the
explanations is the lint in the washing machine's lint collector
is disintegrated socks.
o--------=| Charles Martin |=--o
Mike Czaplinski
I think I may have posted this way back when I first started hanging about
afu (would that mean I'm suffering from Deja-afu?), but....
An old co-worker of mine once found what used to be a black sock in the drain
pipe of her washing machine while it was being serviced. The Maytag Repair
Man said that he found such things all the time, since socks are the just the
right size & shape to be swept down by the water moving down the drain.
The sock, after uncounted months of being caught in the drain trap, had gone
from black to a lovely golden brown.....
Mike "Which would also solve the two-color-sock drawer problem..." Czaplinski
m...@nsscmail.att.com
Brian Leibowitz
No, the lint is the remains from the molting process as the sock sheds
its fur and unwinds. They do this in the dryer because
they need the warmth to start the transformation. While in wire form, they
slip out and find their way to the nest (closet) where the mature hangers
help them to attain their final form and to teach them the tangling
rituals. [The loose hangers that are not tangled in the bunch are usually
outcast wandering hangers from other nests that are not welcome to partake
in the tangling rites.]
Brian "How do the baby pigeons fit into this?" Leibowitz
S. Mudgett aka little gator
>
>Also, my wire hangers do not multiply. Instead, they disappear. So
>maybe there's a wormhole between my closet and somebody else's, and
>that person is receiving my wire hangers.
i have the same problem. ask my husband how happy i am when he gets his
suit back from being cleaned, along with a new hanger or two.
--
-- little gator aka s. mudgett email: s...@harvee.billerica.ma.us
-- friend of a gator is a friend of mine
-Stewart,G.M.
[...]
>Brian "How do the baby pigeons fit into this?" Leibowitz
It takes a bit of pushing, and they don't like it one bit.
GMS
Peter Childress
effect of smelly feet. They don't really exist, except as figments of the
imagination in the minds of physicists. PROVE ME WRONG! JUST PROVE ME WRONG!
--
-Pete Childress- chld...@crl.com | Old Theodore Swann told my Daddy and
The Bay Area Bird Registry for Lost & | my Daddy told me,"Son, never give an
Found Avian Companions (415) 252-1659 | opinion if the facts can be found."
laur...@news.delphi.com
>Sorry, but you're all wrong. Socks are merely an artifact of the field
>effect of smelly feet. They don't really exist, except as figments of the
>imagination in the minds of physicists. PROVE ME WRONG! JUST PROVE ME WRONG!
It must be. I don't have smelly feet, therefore I don't have socks. :)
Laura
-Stewart,G.M.
Eli Balin <elib...@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu> wrote:
>In article <39hsa8$e...@crl10.crl.com>,
>Peter Childress <chld...@crl.com> wrote:
>>Sorry, but you're all wrong. Socks are merely an artifact of the field
>>effect of smelly feet. They don't really exist, except as figments of the
>>imagination in the minds of physicists. PROVE ME WRONG! JUST PROVE ME WRONG!
>
>You've used an Abianism! Does this mean that socks are the massed
>representation of time? Are all the missing socks being used to form a
>rope which will be used to pull Venus into Earth's orbit?
Good Lord! What the heck is an Abianism? Have I inadvertently
used one? Am I using one now?!? AAAGGGHGHGHGGHGHGHGGGHHH!!!
GM("If Ignorance of the Law is
No Excuse, What the Hell Is?")S
Eli Balin
>effect of smelly feet. They don't really exist, except as figments of the
>imagination in the minds of physicists. PROVE ME WRONG! JUST PROVE ME WRONG!
You've used an Abianism! Does this mean that socks are the massed
representation of time? Are all the missing socks being used to form a
rope which will be used to pull Venus into Earth's orbit?
--
=======================================================================
| Report the First: The humans have unusual table manners; they allow |
| no food to fall from their mouths when eating. |
=======================================================================
| E. M. Balin (elib...@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu): If sanity, reason, and |
| common sense aren't working, I might just have an answer that will. |
=======================================================================
The Polymath
}In <CINDY.94O...@bokfink.nvg.unit.no>, Cindy Kandolf writes:
}
}>
}>Also, my wire hangers do not multiply. Instead, they disappear. So
}>maybe there's a wormhole between my closet and somebody else's, and
}>that person is receiving my wire hangers.
}
}i have the same problem. ask my husband how happy i am when he gets his
}suit back from being cleaned, along with a new hanger or two.
You're probably not providing the proper environment. They like privacy
and will not breed if left in the open. Also, they do not interbreed with
other hangar types. Finally, while a breeding pair is theoretically
enough to get started, you really need a colony of a dozen or so for best
results.
The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, M.A., CDP, aka: holl...@polymath.tti.com)
Head Robot Wrangler at Citicorp "Learning about the U.S. from the popular
3100 Ocean Park Blvd. media is like learning about plumbing by
Santa Monica, CA 90405 sitting in a cesspool." -- Michael Phelps
Shawn M. Freeman
SOCK RELATIVITY!
S(f)= S(o)*(sqrt(1-V(s)^2/D^2)
Where S(o) is your original amount of socks, V(s) is the velocity of
the socks in the dryer and D is the speed of dryer which is constant.
This a special version of transformation founded by yours truly 8).
As the speed of the socks approach the speed of the dryer the relative
number of socks drop. Under normal circumstances they slowly drop
velocity and return to the normal sock state. But you must take into
the account of the increased sockmass/socknumber ratio in the
following equation:
S(m) = S(i)/sqrt(1 - V(s)^2/D^2
The increase in the sock mass and the reduction in real socks produces
the effect known as the sock hole. The intense gravosock pulling due
to the continuos rise in sock mass and decreased number of socks in a
rotating drum causes a tear in the space-time continuum to form in the
center of the drum. When a sock becomes so laden with sockmass it can
no longer sustain the rotational velocity it falls into the hole.
Usually the sudden disappearance of such a massive sock causes the
surounding sock masses to have an unequal gravosock pull and the hole
closes. The reduced velocity is enough to restabilize the number of
socks minus the one mass sock that exited the continuum. Of course the
process will proceed to begin again but usually the dryer sequence is
long enough for only one or at most two socks. But even a small amount
of sockmass can cause a tremendous release of sockokenetic energy
which explains why socks are always one of the first things to dry.
E(s) = (M(s)*D^6)/2
Where E(s) is the energy of the socks, M(s) is the sockmass and D is
the dryer velocity constant. Energy must be halved for the fact that
only one sock of each pair can fuse...the other must stay constant to
maintain an equilibrium in the dryer.
Also, under extremely hot dryers, sock fusion is possible. This
happens when the socks in a hot dryer can no longer maintain their
structure and they fly apart so they are just sock particles. As the
temperature goes higher the sock particles fuse to form heavier sock
particles. This process occurs at a rather high rate but yields only
a small change in overall socks. But usually one sockmass is fused
with surrounding materials including other socks (which causes some
fading in some socks and darkening in others). Under these
circumstances the socks never reach a significant speed to be affected
by the previously stated laws.
NOTE I: NO socks can exceed the speed of dryer! In theory this would
yield a negative sockmass. If this were to happen then any
positive sock mass that came in contact with it would explode!
NOTE II: These laws of physics apply only to the dryer continuum...any
other use is completely ridiculous!
NOTE III: Energy produced by sockmass vary with type of dryer, i.e
Maytag, whirlpool, etc. Each continuum may vary slightly.
HYPOTHESIS ON WHERE THE SOCKS GO: When the socks leave our universe
they mass together. Eventually the
sockmass will overpower our
continuum and cause it to collapse. But
according to current measurements
the sockmass in the universe is
remaining constant and that which is
lost is only 1*10^10th that of
which is made. Therefore our
continuum is quite safe from a sock
collapse...at least for now 8).
Is really bored to type all this
Shawn
P.S- This article is only in jest....any who take me seriously need to
hug themselves in a padded white room 8).
Craig Mc Cue
>
>I HAVE THE TRUTH!!! THE NEW THEORY EVERYONE HAS BEEN WAITING FOR!!!
>
> SOCK RELATIVITY!
Don't waste your effort... submit your findings to the "Journal of
Irreproducible Results"
[][][][][][][][]"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'[][][][][][][][]
[][][][][][][] Craig S. Mc Cue [][][][][][][]
[][][][][][] csm...@cacd.rockwell.com [][][][][][]
[][][][][] D-Fense * GPS * Embedded * Test * D-Base [][][][][]
[][][][] [][][][]
[][][] "Never attribute to malice that which can be [][][]
[][] adequately explained by stupidity." [][]
[] []
["'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"'"']
Peter Childress
: Good Lord! What the heck is an Abianism? Have I inadvertently
: used one? Am I using one now?!? AAAGGGHGHGHGGHGHGHGGGHHH!!!
: GM("If Ignorance of the Law is
: No Excuse, What the Hell Is?")S
Just a note here: I didn't mean to bash the Prof. Abian. In a field that
seriously considers many worlds, multi-dimensional universes, and time
travel, not to mention trying to prove/disprove them using 17 dimension
mathematics, well, one*never*knows... I really *don't* want to be at the
head of the line to kiss Prof. Abian's hiny if he ever wins the Nobel...
<g>
--
:: The truth of the matter may remain unknown in deference to the ::
:: opinion of Authority. Question all authority, including your own, ::
:: for belief & assumption will color everything you think you know. ::
:: Pete Childress ------- San Francisco, CA ------- chld...@crl.com ::
bill nelson
:
: Just a note here: I didn't mean to bash the Prof. Abian. In a field that
: seriously considers many worlds, multi-dimensional universes, and time
: travel, not to mention trying to prove/disprove them using 17 dimension
: mathematics, well, one*never*knows... I really *don't* want to be at the
: head of the line to kiss Prof. Abian's hiny if he ever wins the Nobel...
: <g>
Not to worry. Abian doesn't have the proverbial snowball's chance. He
makes sttements, but never attempts to prove them. His greatest problem
seems to be a total lack of a scientific education - although he apparently
was once a decent mathematician.
Peter Childress
: You're probably not providing the proper environment. They like privacy
: and will not breed if left in the open. Also, they do not interbreed with
: other hangar types. Finally, while a breeding pair is theoretically
: enough to get started, you really need a colony of a dozen or so for best
: results.
: The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, M.A., CDP, aka: holl...@polymath.tti.com)
: Head Robot Wrangler at Citicorp "Learning about the U.S. from the popular
: 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. media is like learning about plumbing by
: Santa Monica, CA 90405 sitting in a cesspool." -- Michael Phelps
Actually, you don't even need a pair. They're self-replicating, not
unlike theories about the nature of reality... <g>
mark a friesel
>
> I HAVE THE TRUTH!!! THE NEW THEORY EVERYONE HAS BEEN WAITING FOR!!!
>
> SOCK RELATIVITY!
>
> S(f)= S(o)*(sqrt(1-V(s)^2/D^2)
...
But even a small amount
> of sockmass can cause a tremendous release of sockokenetic energy
> which explains why socks are always one of the first things to dry.
>
> E(s) = (M(s)*D^6)/2
>
> Where E(s) is the energy of the socks, M(s) is the sockmass and D is
> the dryer velocity constant
Sorry, guy. This is only an approximation (congratulations on taking the
first step though), since you neglected to quantize the sock field. It's
intuitively obvious that socks are quantized into sockions with approximate
free sock mass M as you state, they preserve parity, and have color and
texture charge. They are also unstable, and decay via lint emission with a
half life of roughly ten (Wash) cycles. The amount of lint is conserved,
but there are some peculiar effects due the interaction of socks with the
observor (the Wash machine (c. 1945)) which makes the lint appear to
multiply - probably some kind of stimulated emission, or perhaps vacuum
fluctuation if we subscribe to the 'cleaner' theory. I know from
experiment that the vacuum 'cleaner' tends to absorb lint with about a 95%
efficiency, the energy of which is converted to heat although the output
heat is supplemented by the electrical resistance inherent in the machine
(due to the uncertainty principle, of course, the vacuum must be treated as
a black box. When we open it up, we create new lint from the stress
applied to the vacuum.) Unavoidable entropic loss evident from standard
accounting calculations seem to indicate that the sockmass is decreasing
over time, but since the average production rate appears constant and the
ground state sock energy level is non-zero, I opt for the closed sock
universe and some unobserved lint/sock interaction.
At any rate, let's move along and find the appropriate eigenfunction for
socks. The nonrelativistic Hamiltonian is HPsi = E(s)Psi hence we need
something like Psi = exp(ipx) with p the sock momentum, but of course we
will also at some point need to establish the commutation relations. The
difficult part is finding the sock potential. One would naturally think
that it is simply a constant, e.g. 2 for an unmarried singlet, but since
sock pairs are regularly observed, and are typically unaccompanied by
statistically significant odoron emissions, it's quite evident that the
potential is a function of, at least, a distance parameter, probably the
number of observed showers/unit time (we are currently very short of shower
data), and possibly sock constituents (!). The latter, I think, is a most
intriguing possiblity since I know of no existant theoretical work being
done on this, except possibly through AMTEX which is a government lab
initiative and seems to be classified.
Mark A. Friesel
(509) 375-2235
e-mail: ma_fr...@pnl.gov
A product which provides a competitive advantage to its users creates its
own market.
Anthony Smith
[lots deleted]
>
>You're probably not providing the proper environment. They like privacy
>and will not breed if left in the open. Also, they do not interbreed with
>other hangar types. Finally, while a breeding pair is theoretically
>enough to get started, you really need a colony of a dozen or so for best
>results.
>
My working theory on both phenomina is that the entropy not gained in both
washing systems and hanging systems gets to a point (since there
are no half socks or half hangers) that a full hangar or full sock has
to disappear at the first given chance. Remember, these are not closed
systems, and the environment of the universe is largely without hangars
or socks. Although I've never seen a stable system, and definitely never
seen the system work in the other direction (unless I personnally add
to the system), I imagine that if you get a colony (as described above),
that the system considerations would make the entropy losses negligable.
I like to call it Quantum Entropy.
-ACES
-No, no, no...The QUICKEST way to a man's heart is through his RIBCAGE.
Peter Childress
<lots of bobbited stuff>
C'mon, Mark! Everyone knows that socks have inertia, and that altering
earth's orbit will do away with athlete's foot... JUST PROVE ME WRONG!
JUST PROVE ME WRONG OR SHUT UP!
Normally yours,
-Pete
--
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: "Angels fly because they take themselves lightly." ::
:: -G.K. Chesterton- ::
:::::::::::::: Pete Childress ___ chld...@crl.com :::::::::::::
althea morin
: Nah, ya all got it wrong.
: Socks mate with paperclips and become paper-cover hangers.
: ahf
No.
Actually, the tub inside the washer spins around really fast (we knew
that) and if you've overloaded yr. washer like I always do, yr. socks go
over the edge of the tub & into the little crack you never notice at the
top, down into the unreachable depths of the machinery. I caught one of
mine in the act of escaping once.
sorry to be unimaginative.
Alan Hamilton
>No.
>Actually, the tub inside the washer spins around really fast (we knew
>that) and if you've overloaded yr. washer like I always do, yr. socks go
>over the edge of the tub & into the little crack you never notice at the
>top, down into the unreachable depths of the machinery. I caught one of
>mine in the act of escaping once.
>sorry to be unimaginative.
To be just a bit serious, I strongly suspect that the socks really *do* get
eaten by the washer, and the dryer is getting unfairly blamed because that's
where the loss is discovered. In addition to socks escaping the inner tub,
they can get stuck under the agitator. And, depending on the sock color, they
can get pasted to the tub or agitator and not be noticed. I once noticed a
black sock stuck to the washer's black agitator. With the poor light inside
the washer, it would have been very easy for me to have missed it.
/
/ * / Alan Hamilton
* * al...@primenet.com
Daniel P Tasman
al...@primenet.com (Alan Hamilton) writes:
> To be just a bit serious, I strongly suspect that the socks really *do* get
> eaten by the washer, and the dryer is getting unfairly blamed because that's
> where the loss is discovered. In addition to socks escaping the inner tub,
> they can get stuck under the agitator. And, depending on the sock color, they
> can get pasted to the tub or agitator and not be noticed. I once noticed a
> black sock stuck to the washer's black agitator. With the poor light inside
> the washer, it would have been very easy for me to have missed it.
Here's what happens to most of my socks ...
* Socks get dropped on the way from the laundry bin to the washer, or back from
the dryer to be sorted and put abck int he dresser. The missing sock is either
grabbed by one of the four dogs in my house, which uses it as a chew toy and
destroys it in a matter of hours, or is found a few days later on the floor in
the basement. By that time, I already got rid of the other sock because I
couldn't find the pair, so it looks like another sco
* I stuff my socks in my shoes and put them underneath my bed at night.
Sometimes, the sock comes loose, and by the time I discover it I already washed
the first sock, and think its twin got chewed up in the washer or dryer.
* Moving clothes from the washer (remeber, this is getting back to the "top
loading North American washing machine" thread) to the dryer, socks and the
occasional pair of underwear slips in the crack between the washer and dryer.
--
Dan Tasman SUNY at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning
E-mail - tas...@acsu.buffalo.edu & v132...@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu
WWW URL - http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~tasman/
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree. |
| indeed, unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all." |
| Odgen Nash, Song of the Open Road |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Gerald Diamond
>al...@primenet.com (Alan Hamilton) writes:
>> To be just a bit serious, I strongly suspect that the socks really *do* get
>> eaten by the washer, and the dryer is getting unfairly blamed because that's
>> where the loss is discovered. In addition to socks escaping the inner tub,
>> they can get stuck under the agitator. And, depending on the sock color, they
>> can get pasted to the tub or agitator and not be noticed. I once noticed a
>> black sock stuck to the washer's black agitator. With the poor light inside
>> the washer, it would have been very easy for me to have missed it.
>Here's what happens to most of my socks ...
><deleted for bandwidth' sake>
I have found socks that made a breaf for freedom and got all the way out
the dryer exhaust vent
I suppose if I had been a bit later an opportunistic squirrel or largish
bird might have made off with them to line their nest...
--
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+|\
Gerald Diamond | \
Ontario Ministry of Environment and Energy | \
| \ ^. .>
I spoke only for my bicycle and myself! | u
Arjan Harlaar
>From: al...@primenet.com (Alan Hamilton)
>Subject: Re: The Truth about disappearing socks
>Date: Sun, 20 Nov 1994 08:26:58 MST
Then what's the reason it's always your favourite socks that get lost?
Geoff Niland
>black sock stuck to the washer's black agitator. With the poor light inside
>the washer, it would have been very easy for me to have missed it.
There's a great opportunity - just like a fridge, there could be a little
light in all washing machines that comes on when you lift the lid/open the
door.
Hmmmmm.... I'd better race out and patent it... bye
Deron Staffen
--
===============================================================================
="...And you can swallow, | | =
= Or you can spit; | e-mail: |"That's odd... none of my =
= You can throw it up, | | relatives are sane..." =
= Or choke on it..." | dws...@arts.usask.ca | -me =
= -Bono, U2 | | =
===============================================================================
Bruce Priebe
I've been following this thread for quite some time and have finally decided
to speak out.
SOCKS DON'T DISSAPEAR!
They breed! All that warm soapy water gets them quite excited. Try counting
your socks before and after you wash them. It's true you know. I haven't had
to buy new socks since 1982 (They year I moved out, and I suspect my mother
never bought me socks either)
-Stewart,G.M.
Bruce Priebe <bpr...@fsight2.com> wrote:
>althea morin (lil...@amanda.dorsai.org) wrote:
>: Aileen Fell (ez04...@chip.ucdavis.edu) wrote:
>: : Nah, ya all got it wrong.
[...]
>I've been following this thread for quite some time and have finally decided
>to speak out.
>
>SOCKS DON'T DISSAPEAR!
They do if they piss me off one too many times.
GMS
Ken Kaufman
>I've been following this thread for quite some time and have finally decided
>to speak out.
>SOCKS DON'T DISSAPEAR!
>They breed! All that warm soapy water gets them quite excited.
[more deleted]
Bruce, what you say is true, but you forgot one key point ---
AS PERCEIVED BY US, SOCKS GO BACKWARDS IN TIME.
A sock is typically born in the chemically fertile environment of a
landfill or incinerator. In its youth it is an incomplete, chaotic
thing, often with holes or tears. (Compare with infants and their
incomplete cranial bone structure!) As it matures and attains more
internal cohesiveness, it will begin to hang out in the meat markets of
the dryer/washer. Scientists don't know whether it is the hot dry air
and centrifugal motion of the dryer or the warm soapy liquid of the
washer, but occasionally the sock will mitose into two almost identical
children. These will typically be infertile, much like some plants'
alternating generations reproductive cycle.
When a sock dies, its skin will have taken on a spotless, brilliant look.
Humans, in their temporally reversed states, are actually putting them
in their burial shrouds when they think they are opening a package of
socks. The dead socks are then typically presented for public viewing
in various retail establishments before being sent back to processing
plants and having their bodies converted to yarn. Socks feel this is a
rather barbaric process, and in [their] future, they will eschew this
mass viewing and destruction in favor of a more personalized, private
decomposition by someone closer to their lifelong wearer.
==Ken Kaufman
"Ontogeny recapitulates hosiery."
Laura Helen
pair them.
The best answer is to stuff them all in a sock drawer in one tangled heap.
BUT, the considerate sock owner will make some small noise before opening
such a drawer, to give time for the sox to rearrange themselves.
Unless you want pink sox...
Laura
GILBERTO DANIEL SIMPSON
: Bruce, what you say is true, but you forgot one key point ---
: AS PERCEIVED BY US, SOCKS GO BACKWARDS IN TIME.
hmmmmm wasn't this an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation?
Peace
Gilberto
Joerg Winkelmann
: Ken Kaufman (kau...@mason1.gmu.edu) wrote:
A similar idea occurs also in a novel by the russian sci-fi-writers
Strugatzky, where a person (head of an institute doing research on
magic things) is moving backwards thru time.
Joerg
: Peace
: Gilberto
Scott Ellerman
Also an explanation given for Merlyn in T.H. White's "The Once and Future King."
(If you don't want to read the whole 1200 pages or so, see the first 20 minutes
of the musical "Camelot," but the book is worth it.) A very good treatise (IMHO)
on war and leadership, among other things.
Scott
--
Scott A. Ellerman ell...@uh2309p03.daytonoh.ncr.com
Licensed Technoweenie and
Extradimensional Entity for Hire
--------
Probably not the opinion of AT&T Global Information Solutions.
K.L. Anderson
>
> Yep, sure was. The last one.
>
> Also an explanation given for Merlyn in T.H. White's "The Once and Future King."
> (If you don't want to read the whole 1200 pages or so, see the first 20 minutes
> of the musical "Camelot," but the book is worth it.)
Book is 1000 times better than the movie (but the 5th book, "Merlyn,"
is pretty dark.
Another writer who uses the backwards in time (negative entropy) theme
is Brian W. Aldiss (British S.F. '50's-'70's.)
kla
mark wieder
<klan...@facstaff.wisc.edu> wrote:
> Another writer who uses the backwards in time (negative entropy) theme
> is Brian W. Aldiss (British S.F. '50's-'70's.)
Don't you mean '70's-'50's? :-)
David Hickey-Schiappa
: Peace
: Gilberto
Well, I'm not sure how seriously anyone wants to know the true
answer, but I'll risk the flames and take a shot at it. I think socks
"disappear" because they become charged with static electricity and thus
"stick" to other clothes in positions where they are not noticed when the
clothes are being put away (inside a sleeve, say). I've seen evidence of
this process having happened to my own clothes. Of course for those
using anti-static materials, maybe THEIR socks really did go through a
wormhole somewhere (but, in that case, wouldn't socks from other
universes be showing up in ours?)
altair4
==========================================================================
Save your intelligence quotients, gang - the Krell shall rise again!
==========================================================================
K.L. Anderson
I can only speak from my own point of view...assuming I have one!
-kla
Robert Matthews
Hickey-Schiappa) wrote:
> Well, I'm not sure how seriously anyone wants to know the true
> answer, but I'll risk the flames and take a shot at it. I think socks
> "disappear" because they become charged with static electricity and thus
> "stick" to other clothes in positions where they are not noticed when the
> clothes are being put away (inside a sleeve, say). I've seen evidence of
> this process having happened to my own clothes. Of course for those
> using anti-static materials, maybe THEIR socks really did go through a
> wormhole somewhere (but, in that case, wouldn't socks from other
> universes be showing up in ours?)
> altair4
"The true answer" my ass! Ask any appliance repair person. (Well, get
them really drunk and then ask them, because they're under oath not to
reveal this.) There's a box inside the dryer that counts the socks as they
whiz past, then sucks_ one_ sock into its maw, reduces it to dust, and
releases it back into the dryer, to be deposited in the filter as lint.
Where else could the lint come from? In my apartment building, the dryer
sometimes has an inch-thick pad of lint in it from numerous unintelligent
people not cleaning out the lint trap--you could save it and felt it into
cloth: you can't tell me that ordinary clothing tumbling around releases
that much dust.
Nope. It's the sock pulverizer.
Robert "two left feet and socks to match" Matthews
Martin H. Booda
|>
|> Another writer who uses the backwards in time (negative entropy) theme
|> is Brian W. Aldiss (British S.F. '50's-'70's.)
|>
artist mind-traveling ("In te, anime meus, tempora metior," as St. Augustine
said it) into the Jurassic and elsewhen. He meets up with members of the
(trans-)Himalayan generation, "decendants" of ours who perceive time flow in
the opposite direction until the dismal decline of their own "future" (the
ascendancy of our own "past") induces a kind of race-wide madness in them, and
they "become" us. (Or is it the other way round?)
A mindboggling read filled with stunning predictions, not the least of
which is that, although the book was written in the 60's, the schizophrenic
artist-hero's name is something very much like George Herbert Walker Bush!
--
USENET:Artifact Creature, Casting Cost 1B. Summon Net. 10/2, Rampage: 3. Swamp-
walk,Trample,Regeneration,Lure,First Strike.Gains 2 pts of power for each point
of black mana. Negates banding and protection of all creatures in play. Text:
"Legend has it that the Net used to be nastier,but how could that be?"Martin H.
Booda(bo...@navo.navy.mil)|"Back off, man. I'm a scientist." -- Dr. P. Venkman
Jeffrey Baker
If you find that place, will you send me my guitar picks
if they are there. There should be a red one and a gold one.
Jeff
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