Investigator Lira Nikolovska writes: “I noticed last year’s Ig Nobel physics prize winner:” PHYSICS PRIZE: Lianne Parkin, Sheila Williams, and Patricia Priest of the University of Otago, New Zealand, for demonstrating that, on icy footpaths in wintertime, people slip and fall less often if they wear socks on the outside of their shoes. REFERENCE: “Preventing […]
Tag: shoes
Shoe-based navigation update
Khairi Abdulrahim and colleagues at the University of Nottingham in the UK are following an alternative approach to shoe-based navigation. Their new device complements the one recently developed at Carnegie Mellon University and North Carolina State University. (See: Radar in your shoe: The reasoning Improbable Research, December 1st, 2010). But rather than rely on radar, […]
Study: socks over shoes prevent falls
Socks over shoes surpass shoes over socks for strolling on slippery city slopes, says a study done in New Zealand. In other words – in the words of the study itself – “wearing socks over shoes appears to be an effective and inexpensive method to reduce the likelihood of slipping on icy footpaths”. Lianne Parkin, […]