Where are the socks lost during washing? There is a scientific explanation for this puzzle

Everyone knows the problem of disappearing socks. In his book The nature of time and space Stephen Hawking speculated that spontaneously formed black holes are responsible for the disappearance of the socks. We put steam into the washing machine, and only take out one of them. The device also absorbs underwear and other items of clothing. We decided to clear up the troublesome problem and find the missing things.

Your washing machine or dryer “ate” your socks – how?

It turns out that both top loading and front loading can make your socks disappear.

In the case of washing:

• If your laundry is loaded from the top, the socks may get stuck under the agitator (rod in the center of the washer) or trapped under the washing plate (center piece at the bottom of the bathtub).
• If you overload the washing machine, the socks may get pushed into the area between the inner tray and the outer tray. When that happens, you’ll never get them back.
• Some socks get caught in the filter of the washing machine. If your washing machine has a cleaning area, open it and look for socks. You don’t want your socks to get into the drain pump.
• The socks can get stuck in the rubber door seal. Pull it back gently and look around. By the way, when you look in there, you should wipe the gasket so that it does not get moldy.

In the case of drying:

• If the lint trap is in the front, pull it out and look for socks in the space underneath. If you don’t push the filter all the way in, the socks could end up there.
• Static electricity can cause the socks to stick to other clothes in the dryer.
• When you dry socks with fitted sheets, they can get stuck in corner pockets.

How to save socks so that one of them does not get lost?

Don’t count on your socks not to fade away. Get a mesh laundry bag and put all your socks in it. This is your secret weapon, especially when you have small children in your family. Baby socks and other small items will stay together. Fasten each one with safety pins or other fastening devices.

A formula to predict the probability of socks going astray

The psychologist Simon Moore and the statistician Geoff Ellis, who advises on behavior change and statistics, have developed a formula to solve the problem of socks. They took into account various factors, including the amount of laundry, the number of people in the household, and the number of socks in the household. The main factors for shortage of socks have been found to be the complexity of the laundry load, for example, how the batch is divided based on whiteness / colors / different temperatures and the number of socks in each wash cycle. The formula is named and looks like this: (L (pxf) + C (txs)) – (P x A).

The work was commissioned by Samsung for the launch of the new AddWash machine, which allows users to insert items into the drum halfway through a dedicated opening.