Huge Mathematical discovery

I am certain that they do. But it is a mystery that I have yet to find the answer to.

I do not believe that the drier is the place of disappearance. We do not have (nor ever have had) such a luxury and socks (or one of the pair always) seem to disappear with the same frequency as they do in households with dryers. I am beginning to wonder what effect there would be if one conscientiously separated the pairs into two piles and washed one with the first load and the other with the second. However, see my note below on 'hidden valency'. It is impossible to determine by eye which is a left sock and which is a right sock and I believe that, whether it is a monster or a peculiarity of the physical properties of the sock that is the real agent, left-ness or right-ness is an important factor in disappearance.

I do the same as you and buy several pairs the same. I also keep each odd sock aside for the next one. I now have two years worth of odd socks still waiting for their partner! Owlwings has the answer though, there are four people in our house so I may just have to resign myself to the fact I will have to keep buying socks. I can't buy lots at a time though because we also seem to have a sock monster taking brand new pairs!

bwhahaha! I like that image of having people bow before you. Murphy's laws would dictate that it's more likely to happen if you wear socks that do not match... even if only slightly.

I love the sock fairy image. There must have been years of experience for her to dress up that way. I have tried the same colour thing. However, black is not black, nor grey, grey. After a few washes they seem to pale and be subtly different from one another. I notice, although not too many people throw themselves at my feet, lift the bottom of my trouser leg and say: "not quite a matching pair eh?"

In case the '33 up 2 down' puzzled you, I have to confess that it was a copy-paste job from here: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sock+monster

Whilst researching my response to your discussion I discovered (or, perhaps, uncovered) a very strange fact in connection with the name you have chosen for your presence here and with this discussion. The pikefish (or, as it is commonly known, the pike or pickerel) is known by the Latin name of Esox lucius. Can it indeed be coincidental that this your discussion seeks to elucidate a common hosiery problem by electronic means? Perhaps your choice of cognomen suggested your calling in the household (since I am confident that your erudition could suggest such a connection) or perhaps, having already defined your job description, a conscious or unconscious association inspired you to choose that lurker in the weeds as your avatar. Howsobeit, I really came back in order to say something that occured to me as I was completing some rather tricky insurance claim forms and musing on the bivalence of the sock. There are two things, actually, that came to mind. In discussing this matter of the disappearance of socks some years ago with a scientific and lateral-thinking nephew, he posited that although each member of a pair of socks appears to be identical and interchangeable, in that each may be worn on either foot, it may be that socks do actually have a hidden valency and while they can coexist as a pair under conditions of normal temperature and moisture levels, when exposed to the peculiar conditions of rotation, temperature and moisture present in a washing machine, one of the pair reverts to its antimatter state. After a long and late evening's work with many diagrams and formulae (which precipitated the redecoration of the kitchen, as it happens), we could come to no definite conclusion about this theory, being unable to explain why sock and antisock should not just cancel each other out (leaving no socks). The other interesting tip that came to mind was that (presuming the existence of the hypothetical sock monster) the beast appears to dislike plastic clothes pegs, in that, if one pins the pair of socks together with one of these before placing it in the machine, the likelihood of losing one of the pair is substantially reduced. It is hard to say whether it is the clothes peg itself which deters the monster or whether it is the prodigious rattle that the pegs generate in the drum that frightens the creature away. This fact certainly deserves further investigation. Esox, by the way, seems to have come from the Greek ?s?? which, in turn appears to be of Celtic origin and related to iach (Irish) and eog (Welsh), which means salmon. It seems that Linnaeus got it wrong and Pliny's esox was lost in the wash.

Thank goodness for some proper applied research. As a two person house that increases to three on occasions that coincide with University holidays, or when the local economy has reached meltdown and and a review of the Child Sector Borrowing Requirement is necessary (these loans, in a reverse of the Labour Party's finances, often turn into gifts) we find that we are harbouring this veracious swallower of our socks. Since becoming Senior Occupational Clothes Keeper (SOCK) it has been my sad duty to lie in wait for this slippery character. Without success so far. I have a load load on the go right now. I suspect that I am being watched as I type this, and as I lean back to proof read my work, s/he will nip in and pinch another sock or two.

I have one pen left out of 20 I bought not so long ago. I put so many in a few places so I would have one where ever it was needed but they still disappeared. The strangest thing about that being that I am the only one to use them so I can't blame the family.

I have that problem too. However, in my case the answer is called "The Family". I buy 20 biros at a time from Staples or Tesco. I put them in a pot on my desk, and like bees to a honey pot "The Family" come and relieve me of them. The odd thing is, that they then say that they don't know where the biro(s) that they "borrowed" is, so it's back to Staples or Tescos and so the cycle continues. What a life.

Ah! A very valid addition to the elucidation of the theories already promulgated! This is scientific data collection at its best and a new Theory of Disintiegration, to boot. Or should that be 'to bootee'?

Perhaps the answer is not to use a mechanical dryer. But I don't have one anyway (it's all part of my single handed attempt to save the planet. But I'm not sure what from just yet). I am afraid that you will just have to accept that the sock monster lives, and he is in your home too.

The great mystical Hotpoint Hoover Servis triangle. Wonder if it could do something about my runny nose!

Wonder why we didn't find him (if it is a him) when we redecorated the kitchen before Christmas. I suppose that they hide in secret places. Little devils.

S'pose not.

Well he's not doing a very good job. Because the bulb's blown in the fridge!!