A long time a Go… An evil wizard, lost his magic sock, and since then is looking for that sock… That’s why always one socks is missed during laundry. Let’s Hope he doesn’t find the real one (History by Heavy Maniac).
most entertaining discussion ever!!… my favorite is; Jim Douglas – Clearly dryers are extremely specialized teleportation devices that we don’t yet fully understand.
This is easily explained by conservation of matter. Every time you clean out your dryer’s lint trap, somewhere in the world a sock goes “poof”. And thanks to Quantum Sock Entanglement, it isn’t necessarily your dryer, or your sock…
Ryan Bissell But then we should observe a flow of momentum and mass (or at least the gravitational field[0] thereof, if the flow itself is invisible) between the sending and receiving dryer. Otherwise Einstein’s field equations would be violated.
[0] Or something even stranger. IIRC near long thin singularities there is no field (spacetime is locally flat), but when you go once around the “wire”, the angle is not 360° but different (independently of how big your orbit is).
Ralf Muschall This doesn’t speak directly to your point, but: there doesn’t have to be two dryers; the sock that spontaneously disappears could (previously) be anywhere (sock drawer, laundry basket, under the bed…)
Ryan Bissell No problem with that. But we still need a gravitational field which is equivalent to that which would come from a thin hose through which the sock would flow if it were molten or dissolved.
Rajini Rao Having too many non-paired socks is not good. Pairing them might depend on the Axiom of Choice (unless you add marks to distinguish left and right socks).
[By non-paired I mean all socks in a big heap, not only those whose partner is lost]
There are such things as left and right socks??? OMG. Here I thought I was doing well if I managed not to pair a navy with a black (they all look the same early in the morning) 😛
Rajini Rao If not, then you have a problem. You have many socks and an equivalence relation among them (socks which are sufficiently similar to be a pair are considered “equivalent”). Now you have to pick exactly one sock from each pair (to combine it with the other one), and that picking is impossible without the Axiom of Choice. With left-right-marked socks, this is not a problem – start by picking all left socks.
As with Peter Lindelauf , I do buy them a dozen at a time. But thanks to the voracious appetite of my dryer, the dozens dwindle and intermix with different remnants of other dozens. This results in pairing of unequal lengths, self patterns and textures. Add to this, the random masculine sock (generally less sheer than the feminine version!). If ever there was a sock inspection, I would fail, Ralf Muschall 🙂
He he, I for one tie my socks together after wearing them that way they survive the wash until i wear them again, but i have lost complete pairs to this wizardly machine
out of two only one was detected , you need to calibrate the socks detector again , or else this is against the conservation of socks law, anyways you gotta publish an article 😀 on these results
I challenge someone to invent a washing machine / dryer safe clip to fasten these sneaky creatures together as they venture into the realm of our appliances. The inventor would be an international hero :).
madame scientist's not-so-mad musings 
It ran away with the left mitten…
good question….
You sure you put two in the wash in the first place?
never heard of the sockontinuum?
Clearly dryers are extremely specialized teleportation devices that we don’t yet fully understand.
A long time a Go… An evil wizard, lost his magic sock, and since then is looking for that sock… That’s why always one socks is missed during laundry. Let’s Hope he doesn’t find the real one (History by Heavy Maniac).
<—eats them. I am a troll, sadly goats and bridges are passe. It was always the wool I was after, and I am agoraphobic. I just blame the dryer..
They’re all teleported to another dimension inhabited by nothing but left socks.
Ask Terry Pratchett he knows 🙂 Rajini Rao
Is there a singles bar for hosiery?
lollllll where the lost soles go? Hmmmm?
I believe in lost sock heaven
You saw the troll face, yes! V Green 🙂
one sock ate the other and got fatter
If socks are truly cannibalistic, I really don’t want to know.
It’s a sock eat sock world, James Karaganis 😦
Matchsock.com
They metamorphize. Shedding their fur (which ends up as lint in the dryer), they turn into wire coathangers which accumulate in the closet.
I like the way you think, V Green ! We need the audio for a full audiovisual G+ experience 🙂
Ralf Muschall , brilliant hypothesis. I’m on it.
I always thought it was entropy….find that Higgs Boson, then we’ll know…. 🙂
Ralf Muschall you beat me to it 🙂 the full story is that they shed their lint and then combine with tea spoons to form coat hangers
Combining socks with missing teaspoons is a sho(e)-in for the Nobel prize.
Impressive…
most entertaining discussion ever!!… my favorite is; Jim Douglas – Clearly dryers are extremely specialized teleportation devices that we don’t yet fully understand.
LOL
Yes, that seems to be the prevailing hypothesis alev uneri 🙂
Coin bags.
It’s Transcendence! They realize they weren’t two to begin-with and get back to being ONE.
And yes there’s a song for it – Spice Girls – 2 Become 1
Jesus H. Christ may have the answer..
Rajini Rao, did you check the feet of the washer and dryer? turns out one of them is not in mood and walks away!
They do a mind meld with Mr. Sock.
A variation on the teleportation theme Michelle Beissel ? Mr. S(p)ock request Scotty to beam him up?
This is easily explained by conservation of matter. Every time you clean out your dryer’s lint trap, somewhere in the world a sock goes “poof”. And thanks to Quantum Sock Entanglement, it isn’t necessarily your dryer, or your sock…
I knew there were thermodynamic and quantum underpinnings to “the dryer ate it”, thanks Ryan Bissell 🙂
Ryan Bissell But then we should observe a flow of momentum and mass (or at least the gravitational field[0] thereof, if the flow itself is invisible) between the sending and receiving dryer. Otherwise Einstein’s field equations would be violated.
[0] Or something even stranger. IIRC near long thin singularities there is no field (spacetime is locally flat), but when you go once around the “wire”, the angle is not 360° but different (independently of how big your orbit is).
Ralf Muschall This doesn’t speak directly to your point, but: there doesn’t have to be two dryers; the sock that spontaneously disappears could (previously) be anywhere (sock drawer, laundry basket, under the bed…)
Ryan Bissell No problem with that. But we still need a gravitational field which is equivalent to that which would come from a thin hose through which the sock would flow if it were molten or dissolved.
oh my god, should i die laughing or just put a sock in it?
kiran kumar , I have so many unpaired socks to spare…I feel reactive, like a valence electron 🙂
Rajini Rao Having too many non-paired socks is not good. Pairing them might depend on the Axiom of Choice (unless you add marks to distinguish left and right socks).
[By non-paired I mean all socks in a big heap, not only those whose partner is lost]
There are such things as left and right socks??? OMG. Here I thought I was doing well if I managed not to pair a navy with a black (they all look the same early in the morning) 😛
Rajini Rao If not, then you have a problem. You have many socks and an equivalence relation among them (socks which are sufficiently similar to be a pair are considered “equivalent”). Now you have to pick exactly one sock from each pair (to combine it with the other one), and that picking is impossible without the Axiom of Choice. With left-right-marked socks, this is not a problem – start by picking all left socks.
I don’t match my socks. I just buy 50+ pairs of all identical socks … Et voila, my socks are always sorted. (Patent Pending.)
(D’oh– 8 minutes too late for that joke.)
As with Peter Lindelauf , I do buy them a dozen at a time. But thanks to the voracious appetite of my dryer, the dozens dwindle and intermix with different remnants of other dozens. This results in pairing of unequal lengths, self patterns and textures. Add to this, the random masculine sock (generally less sheer than the feminine version!). If ever there was a sock inspection, I would fail, Ralf Muschall 🙂
He he, I for one tie my socks together after wearing them that way they survive the wash until i wear them again, but i have lost complete pairs to this wizardly machine
Rajini Rao you never know i may have a covalent pair and thus proving the quantum sock entanglement 🙂
i got my maid check, nope, is not there.:>
out of two only one was detected , you need to calibrate the socks detector again , or else this is against the conservation of socks law, anyways you gotta publish an article 😀 on these results
jay wagh , the “socks detector” is my foot which is cold without the sock. Internal calibration of temperature against the control foot 🙂
Amen
I thought someone stole my socks!………..o/
I challenge someone to invent a washing machine / dryer safe clip to fasten these sneaky creatures together as they venture into the realm of our appliances. The inventor would be an international hero :).