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[Phys-L] Levi's ground state?



Last night I observed a physical phenomenon that I have neither seen nor heard of before. It has made me think that there are physical principles at work in mysterious ways.

When my wife washes my Levi’s she asks me to empty pockets, zip the fly, and button the top button before putting them in the dirty clothes basket. They always come back clean and ready to wear. My wife was away for a week and I had to do my own laundry. I failed to zip and button my Levi’s and I washed them with three pair of undershorts and four pair of socks. They went through the wash in an unexceptional manner and I put them into our electric dryer. After 25 minutes of tumbling and being blown with hot air I took them out of the dryer. I was astonished to see that my unzipped, unbuttoned Levi’s had come through the process inside out - not just partially, but completely inside out, including both legs.

The only thing I can think of that distinguishes the two states of Levi’s physically is their relative moments of inertia. Inside out Levi’s have pocket pouches farther from their center of mass than when they are inside in. I can imagine that they are buffeted and spun inside the tumble dryer, and that centrifugal forces will favor states with larger moments of inertia. Still, this is not an entirely satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon. Also, there’s the matter of the legs; the blower may have turned them inside out once the upper part was turned?

Of course I will have to investigate the reproducibility of the phenomenon. I have not done so, but in time my Levi’s will likely get dirty again, and I will be careful to try to reproduce the initial conditions, and of course I will share my results.

Any ideas? Has anyone else observed this phenomenon?

Leigh