Speed of a Sock

I sat here tonight in my recliner, adjusting the elastic on my white cotton socks. You know, when you pull the sock top out away from your leg, and let it pop back, it is VERY fast!!

I wonder how fast it is. It is so fast, that you can't see it. You let go and POP, its against your leg. Not even a blur.

I wonder if there have been any studies that would indicate the feet per second, or miles an hour that your sock top will travel, trying to hurry up and get reattached to your leg.

What if you had a leg a mile in diameter, and could pull you sock top a mile out and let go. Relatively speaking, man that would really have to be fast.

Maybe the government should spend a bunch of money building a super sock elastic testing facility. There might be military or health benefits from such research.

And I thought I needed to get a life! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

And they say that CPA's are boring. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

To the best of my knowledge, there haven't been any studies on the speed of sock elastic. Hmm, sounds like a good project for a government grant. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] (After all, they just did one that determined kids feel bad after you yell at them.) Why not: "Retraction Speed of Standard Sock Elastic and Possible Military/Scientific Uses"?

Lets see, the study could take one or two years. You'd have to included salaries for yourself, family, family pets, etc. You'd need office space, vehicles, phones, etc. It could be worth a couple million. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

SHF

And we'd end up with a military spec $2500 sock ($5000 the pair) [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Yes, but then we'd be able to buy them surplus for $1.50. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

SHF

I have been reticent to comment but found several of my references in unclassified publicatons.

There is research ongoing into the "socks dissapear in the laundry and wire coat hangers appear in the back of closets" phenomenon. It is hypothesized to be some sort of space tme anomoly akin to black holes. It seems the socks leave "our space" and are replaced by the quantum equivalent number of wire coathangersappearing to materialize in our space. It is entirely likely that the sock's elastic retraction speed is a distortion of the space time continuum and gives the appearance of not taking time to move due to time dilution.

There is just a lot more going on with socks than was ever imagined just a few decades ago.

Patrick

<font color="purple"> socks dissapear in the laundry </font color>

This is a whole 'nother study. I have experienced this phenomenon ever since I've done my own laundry. I suspect the dryer manufacturers "trap" them occasionally into the "works", which eventually screws up the dryer, requiring replacement.

Pat,

You mean somebody beat us out of our study? Well, ain't that just like the guvmint. Givin our grant money to somebody else! [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

Steve