Physics of Socks

[pieces o nine]

Oh, sure, this may seem frivolous, but it's been on my mind, on and off, for  mumble mumble  years.

I implore my more scientifically minded sibs:
Why is it that a foot-shaped sock on a foot-shaped foot will not  stay in what seems to be the logical foot-shaped alignment?

As I am racing around my apartment, I am continually annoyed by the uncomfortable sensation of my socks migrating around my feet until the heel is on the top of my instep. (Furthermore, these pedal orbits are not synchronous.) I understand the theory  of why they slide down in certain (although, inexplicably, not all) boots and shoes, or when acting as independent footwear agents, but have never found a reasonable excuse for this willful rotational misalignment, seemingly in violation of the Law of Conservation of Matter, Energy, and Anatomy. Especially  when I have not observed so-called 'tube socks' as subject to the same sock chaos theories or uncertainty principles.

I feel certain that a Nobel Prize may be in the offing for anyone who can solve a problem so vexing to sock-wearing humanity.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Could it be that you generate torque on the Y axis while your foot is on the floor while walking?

[Swatopluk]

1st question: does the rotation stop once that position is reached?
2nd question : do both socks rotate in the same direction or one clockwise, the other counterclockwise?

My first guess: while walking the foot makes slight sideways motions inside the socks when the sole is set on the ground and the sock behaves similar to a tank caterpillar. After a half rotation the torque in the whole sock is strong enough to pull back, when you lift the foot but the shoe is still on the ground.
The effect would be strongest, if the socks are rather loose (and the shoes fulfill certain criteria).
The sock going down is in my experience caused by a similar effect. When you put your front foot down and swing the other leg forward, your standing foot is pressed back. The inside of the shoe has usually higher friction than your sole, so the foot glides back while the sock stays in place in realtion to the shoe. Once you lift your foot again, the tension put on the sock can be relieved and that will at least partially result in a pull on the back part of the sock => gliding down. Again this effect should be strongest with loose socks and partially depending on the fitting of the shoe.
I have the same problem with my shoe lifts. they only support the back part of the foot and do not reach forward to the toes. they akso tend to work themselves forward, epecially, when I walk downhill.

[The Meromorph]

Swato is in the right ballpark...
You (or anyone) do not walk with your feet pointed straight forward. Nor do they point offset at the same angle.
Hence walking provides a sliding motion sideways on the sole of the sock, which, like a tank tread, turns into a rotating motion for the whole sock.
Well fitting, shaped, socks are little stressed when in the right position, and so provide little resistance to the sliding motion, and the most resistance occurs when they are 'upside down', so they tend to get upside down and stay there (point of dynamic equilibrium).
Tube socks are a) not fitted, and therefore resist the turning motion in all positions, and b) usually relatively rough on the inside and thus strongly resist turning.

If you wear tube socks too long at a stretch, they shape themselves to your foot, and start turning a bit, but they're still relatively rough on the inside (designedly so, by the way)  and so don't do it as much as regular socks.

[Sibling Chatty]

Microscopic Sock Gnomes.

Malevolent microscopic Sock Gnomes.

[pieces o nine]

Some very enlightening replies. 

As thanks, here is a favorite poem.

Oda a los Calcetines
Me trajo Mara Mori
un par de calcetines
que tejió con sus manos de pastora,
dos calcetines suaves como liebres.
En ellos metí los pies
como en dos estuches
tejidos con hebras del
crepúsculo y pellejos de ovejas.

Violentos calcetines,
mis pies fueron dos pescados de lana,
dos largos tiburones
de azul ultramarino
atravesados por una trenza de oro,
dos gigantescos mirlos,
dos cañones:
mis pies fueron honrados de este modo
por estos celestiales calcetines.

Eran tan hermosos que por primera vez
mis pies parecieron inaceptables,
como dos decrépitos bomberos,
bomberos indignos de aquel fuego bordado,
de aquellos luminosos calcetines.

Sin embargo, resistí la tentación
aguda de guardarlos como los colegiales preservan sus luciérnagas,
como los eruditos coleccionan
documentos sagrados,
resistí el impulso furioso de ponerlos
en una jaula de oro y darles cada
dia alpiste y pulpa de melón rosado.

Como descubridores que en la selva
entregan el rarísimo venado verde
al asador y se lo comen con remordimiento,
estiré los pies y me enfundé
los bellos calcetines y luego los zapatos.

Y es esta la moral de mi Oda:
Dos veces es belleza la belleza,
y lo que es bueno es doblemente bueno,
cuando se trata de dos calcetines
de lana en el invierno.

Ode to My Socks
Mara Mori brought me
a pair of socks
which she knitted herself
with her sheepherder's hands,
two socks as soft as rabbits.
I slipped my feet into them
as if they were two cases
knitted with threads of twilight and goatskin,

Violent socks,
my feet were two fish made of wool,
two long sharks
sea blue, shot through
by one golden thread,
two immense blackbirds,
two cannons,
my feet were honored in this way
by these heavenly socks.

They were so handsome for the first time
my feet seemed to me unacceptable
like two decrepit firemen,
firemen unworthy of that woven fire,
of those glowing socks.

Nevertheless, I resisted the sharp temptation
to save them somewhere as schoolboys
keep fireflies,
as learned men collect
sacred texts,
I resisted the mad impulse to put them
in a golden cage and each day give them
birdseed and pieces of pink melon.

Like explorers in the jungle
who hand over the very rare green deer
to the spit and eat it with remorse,
I stretched out my feet and pulled on
the magnificent socks and then my shoes.

The moral of my ode is this:
beauty is twice beauty
and what is good is doubly good
when it is a matter of two socks
made of wool in winter.

I've always loved the imagery of 'violent socks'.
But I wonder: do they stubbornly stay put, or do they migrate around the foot with aggression?

[goat starer]

I implore my more scientifically minded sibs:
Why is it that a foot-shaped sock on a foot-shaped foot will not  stay in what seems to be the logical foot-shaped alignment?

It is for exactly the same reason that socks purchased in pairs do not have a match after the first wash. Socks are an intersting and largely unrecognised phenomenon. By chance the structure of a sock exactly replicates the shape of Calabi-Yau space and create a brane hole in the fabric of the observable universe. Esentially this means that socks do not occupy four dimensional percieved space at all but exist in potential until observed. At the point of observation the sock accepts one of four possible states known as - positive, missing, twisted or wooly. In the event that a sock observed through contact with the foot it adopts one of these states. as only positive results in the sock being correctly positioned in observable space there is a 3/4 chance that the sock will be uncomfortable.

Similarly when observing socks during the matching process only two states will result in the sock being actually present in a recognisable form, twisted and positive. if missing the sock will remain unobservable (although it will continue to occupy Calabi-Yau space  in quantum potentia until the subsequent observation). If wooly the sock will appear to the observer to be lurid colours, fluffy and nothing like any socks the observer possesses. It may also have a picture of daffy duck on it.

I hope this clears up this issue. Any further science type questions please PM me or email ProfessorGoatPHDMPhilFellowoftheroyalsociety@bighornsbigbrainsbig....co.uk

[pieces o nine]

This is the sort of scholarly reply I was hoping for!   

[Griffin NoName]

Goatie, you should add your sock qualification to your Facebook profile.

My own offering is the tightness of the sock is the deciding factor (Mero has touched on this). Nylon stretchy socks (like stockings) stay put, even the shaped ones, at the heel.

My own pre-occupation is with the sort that have seams along the toeline. However hard I work on aligning the seam with my row of toes, it twists off and causes a bad feeling between the toe against the top of my shoe. Even tight ones. In fact tight ones can be worse.

Considering Goat's thesis, I think he may well be on the ball. It may need a more evolved brain to come up with a true sock solution. I fear Homo Sapiens will never solve this one.

Are there any support sites on the ineternet?

[anthrobabe]

I agree completely with what eveyone else has said on the topic   

here is what I found
Sock Physics-- with answers!

More crap

this one has mathematics in it (or maths, math, more crap)

[pieces o nine]

...
My own offering is the tightness of the sock is the deciding factor (Mero has touched on this). Nylon stretchy socks (like stockings) stay put, even the shaped ones, at the heel.
...

I've found that the kind of white cotton ankle-high sock worn with sneakers ["trainers" for you UK types  ] & jeans is more apt to stay up and stay put than the stretchy nylon "Trouser Socks", which immediately crawl down the foot and bunch obnoxiously under the toes. They do it on purpose, the bastards.

If the nylon stockings are of the tights variety they are apt to stay put, although once in a great while a mutant pair will twist around the pelvis, against the leg portion, effectively shutting off blood circulation to one leg. Since this never manifests until the wearer is at work, it makes for a long and miserable day.

Are there any support sites on the ineternet?

That would be here.

One pities the tired elastics, the poorly fitted, the huddled-under-the-toes masses yearning to pull free, the wretched who refuse the teeming scores of rotating socks... all who have not found a safe haven here at the Monastery, where socks are verboten with the humble sandals.


[edit] anthrobabe posted while I was composing: thanks for the links! [/edit]

[Sibling Chatty]

The moral of this story is: Never trust Sock Gnomes, even microscopic ones, for doing so leads to sites with MATH(S)!!

[anthrobabe]

Griffin wrote:
"Goatie, you should add your sock qualification to your Facebook profile."

rumble! and if that don't bring a certain school teacher he's mentioned around to enlightement-then nothing will 

Pieces wrote:
"One pities the tired elastics, the poorly fitted, the huddled-under-the-toes masses yearning to pull free, the wretched who refuse the teeming scores of rotating socks... all who have not found a safe haven here at the Monastery, where socks are verboten with the humble sandals."
rumble: the huddled masses should be arriving soon- i'll go sweep the walkway.

[goat starer]

Griffin wrote:
"Goatie, you should add your sock qualification to your Facebook profile."

rumble! and if that don't bring a certain school teacher he's mentioned around to enlightement-then nothing will 

she is already labouring under the delusion that i am too bright for her. If she reads this stunning and groundbreaking sock theory all my chances will be out of the window!

I am so much in love I will choose to pretend to be thick!

[pieces o nine]

Showing that you can use your brain powers for good humor -- what sensible female could resist that? It's got to beat lame recitations of old Monty Python skits!