The UK-based team that shared an Ig Nobel Physics Prize in 2012 for exploring the physics of why ponytails (the hair style) are shaped like pony tails, has now looked into a different question from everyday life: Why clothes don’t fall apart. They published a study about it: “Why Clothes Don’t Fall Apart: Tension Transmission […]
Tag: clothing
Fifty Shades, by Gray [podcast 76]
A researcher named Gray and his research about combinations of clothing — that’s the possibly vexing heart of this week’s Improbable Research podcast. SUBSCRIBE on Play.it, iTunes, or Spotify to get a new episode every week, free. This week, Marc Abrahams — with dramatic readings by Harvard physicist Melissa Franklin — tells about: Fifty shades, by Gray— “The Science of Style: In Fashion, Colors Should Match […]
Neckties and non-linearity avoidance
If you tie a knot in a necktie, you may have noticed that (in general) there are three major probabilities regarding the outcome. Sometimes the thin end is longer than the wide end, sometimes the wide end is longer than the thin end, and sometimes they are (roughly) equal. In 2010, Tomoyoshi Motohiro of the […]
Whether to go naked if you’re going to be shot: It depends
The question of whether one is better off being naked or clothed when being shot is not so simple as it may appear. A 2013 study suggests that if one is going to be shot with a bullet, one might be better off naked. Another study, however, suggests that if one is going to be shot […]
Dr. Reed’s medical codpiece theory
If you were a well-to-do gentleman in 15th or 16th century Europe, your closet might well have sported an exuberant codpiece or two. But were they just a foppish whim, or could there have been an underlying necessity behind the codpiece phenomenon? This question caught the attention of Dr. Con Scott Reed, of Sydney, New […]
“Evidence to suggest” suggestive behavior in nightclubs
This study required keep, persistent observatory behavior (or behaviour) on the part of the researchers: “Evidence to suggest that nightclubs function as human sexual display grounds,” Colin A. Hendrie [pictured here], Helena D. Mannion and Georgina K. Godfrey, Behaviour, vol. 146, 2009, pp. 1331-1348. (Thanks to Neil Martin for bringing this to our attention.) The […]
Flamingo-spurred matched Featherstones, for 35 years
This photo shows Don and Nancy Featherstone, wearing matching outfits, at the 2012 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. (Mike Benveniste took the photo.) The Featherstones have come to nearly every Ig Nobel ceremony since Donald was awarded the 1996 Ig Nobel Prize for art, for creating the plastic pink flamingo. For 35 years, the Featherstones have […]
Which Kinds of Products Produce Which Kinds of Genitourinary injuries When
The data in this study indicate that, on a gross society basis, male parts are more often injured by products than are female parts, and that sporting goods are often involved, though more often for younger males than older ones, and that, sporting good aside, zippers are often implicated. “Product Related Adult Genitourinary Injuries Treated […]
How to: Pants specifications
Here are two different methods for specifying clothing size and shape. First, a Workman-like approach: “Body measurement specifications for fit models as a factor in clothing size variation,” Jane E. Workman, Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, September 1991 vol. 10 no. 1, pp. 31-36. Second, an American presidential approach, as lovingly described in words and […]