one of life's mysteries solved

When you wear your socks, they wind up stretched asymmetrically, e.g. your big toe sticks out farther than the rest of your toes. If you take a worn sock and put it on the other foot, it does not fit right.

Anyway, I nearly always manage to put the wrong sock on if I grab a pair I have already worn (no, not stinky old ones! ewww!). Why is this? It drives me nuts. What is the probability of this happening? I have two feet, and two socks, so it's a 50% chance that when I grab a sock it will wind up on the correct foot. But in my case, it's like 10% of time. Why why why?

Well, this morning I figured it out. I take my right sock off first and toss it on the floor. The left sock lands on top of that. Later on, I grab whatever sock is on top and put it on my right foot. So if the sock-pile is undisturbed, voila! Wrong sock on my right foot. Mystery solved.

Don't you feel better? I do.