Ever hunted through a drawer looking for a matching pair, finding only odd socks? We've all blamed the "dryer monster."
Let's start with a drawer of socks only containing complete pairs of socks. Suppose one goes missing, but you don't worry about where or how.
Now another sock goes missing.
Random sock loss is always more likely to create a maximum possible number of socks than to leave us free of the darned things.
If you started with 10 complete pairs, by the time half our soc
ks
have gone
missing, it is four times more likely that we will be
left with a drawer
full
of odd socks, rather than one
containing only complete pairs. The Outcome: Two complete pairs of socks lost among six pairs of socks.
No wonder it is hard to find matching pairs of socks in the morning.
A perfect ending?