Why Do My T-Shirts Get Small Holes In The Front Of Them Before They Get Holes In The Back?

[Jerry N.]

You get little holes in the front of your shirt, because little bits of hot metal fly off the grinding wheel of life.

 

[sjastro]

Which should be simple enough (though tedious) to confirm. How tightly the box is packed should be a factor: tightly packed box = less movement of paper clips. Anecdotally, the longer paper clips stay in the container on my desk, the greater the likelihood that when I remove one it will be linked to another. Note that the longer they are on my desk, the number of paper clips in the container drops until I refill it. I'm currently at the point where, when I remove a paper clip, it's more likely to be linked with another than I am to remove a single one.

A tightly packed box of paper clips where there is no movement means there is no change in entropy and behaves like a state in equilibrium.
Removing and replacing paper clips means the box of paper clips is like an open system, mass is being exchanged with the surroundings while energy exchange is in the form of work being done to pick up a paper clip in the removing or replacing process.

So the question becomes is a box of paper clips an example of statistical mechanics or thermodynamics or is it just an analogy.

Personally I think it is an analogy but I'll let AI provide an answer.

Yes — a box of paper clips is an analogy or macroscopic example of statistical mechanics, but not a true thermodynamic system. Let me explain carefully.

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1. Why it’s an analogy​

Statistical mechanics was originally developed for microscopic particles (atoms, molecules) to explain thermodynamic behavior. The key ideas are:

• Microstates: all the possible configurations of the system.
• Macrostates: coarse-grained properties like temperature, pressure, or total number of links in the paper-clip example.
• Entropy: measures the number of microstates corresponding to a macrostate.

In the paper-clip box:

• Each linking configuration (which clips are linked/unlinked, in which arrangement) is a microstate.
• A macrostate could be “2 links formed” or “all free.”
• Entropy can be defined as (S = k \ln \Omega), counting the number of accessible microstates.

This mirrors the logic of statistical mechanics, but the “particles” are macroscopic paper clips, not atoms.

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2. Why it is not real thermodynamics​

To apply genuine thermodynamics/statistical mechanics:

• You usually need a huge number of particles (~10²³).
• Particles move due to thermal motion, not external shaking.
• Concepts like temperature, heat, and energy spectra are meaningful at the molecular scale.

In a paper-clip box:

• There are only dozens or hundreds of clips.
• Motion comes from shaking, not thermal agitation.
• “Entropy” is really configurational combinatorics, not true molecular entropy.

So it’s a macroscopic analogy — it demonstrates the statistical principles (microstates, macrostates, entropy, equilibrium) in a visible, intuitive way.

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3. Why it’s useful​

• Helps visualize entropy changes: free clips → high entropy, linked chains → lower entropy.
• Shows how equilibrium corresponds to the most probable macrostate.
• Illustrates energy input and dissipation (shaking → linking → friction/heat) as in statistical systems.

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✅ Summary:

• The box of paper clips is not a real thermodynamic system, because the clips are macroscopic and the “temperature” is metaphorical.
• It is an analogy or example of statistical mechanics, illustrating the concepts of microstates, macrostates, entropy, and equilibrium in a tangible way.

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If you want, I can make a diagram showing paper-clip microstates and corresponding entropy, which makes this analogy extremely clear.

It seems to be struggling to differentiate between an example and analogy.

 

[Larniavc]

If you have a cat, that may be the reason.

They’re often called blim burns. When incomplete combustion occurs in fragments of cannabis resin fall from the spliff onto one’s jumper or top.

Tee hee!

 

[Apple Sky]

Socks are just paired items that aren't secured together, making it easier to loose one.

And here's me thinking that the sock fairy stole them.

 

[Jerry N.]

And here's me thinking that the sock fairy stole them.

That’s silly, everybody knows it is gnomes. Fairies would never want your socks.

 

[sjastro]

When GPT-5 gave a description of the world famous sock analogy in science in Post #10 this caught my attention.

Sock Pair #42
A: Red top
B: Stripes middle
C: Star toe

#42 is a very significant number in the world of literature.
I asked GPT-5 what was the point of Sock Pair #42.

Ah! I see what you’re asking — in my sock analogy earlier, I labeled a pair of socks as Sock Pair #42. That choice wasn’t physically significant… it was a cultural reference

42 is famously known as:

“The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.”

…according to Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

So the significance in Sock Pair #42 was simply:

✅ A playful Hitchhiker’s reference
❌ Not a physics constant, not a special number in Bell’s inequality

It was just a little Easter egg hidden in the analogy

If you'd like, I can relabel the sock pair to another number — but personally, 42 is always a good answer.

I assure you I did not prompt GPT-5 to give this answer, while various posters have made jokes about socks in this thread, when AI starts engaging in humour about socks it is frankly rather creepy.

 

[Chesterton]

I'll take a stab at this:

Probably because you walk forward more than you walk backwards.

The front of your t-shirt takes the brunt of the air resistance and, over time, the threads weaken.

Much like the front of your car getting chipped and scratched more than the back.

I'm a pretty slow walker.

 

[Chesterton]

You get little holes in the front of your shirt, because little bits of hot metal fly off the grinding wheel of life.

"Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward."

 

[Chesterton]

Which should be simple enough (though tedious) to confirm. How tightly the box is packed should be a factor: tightly packed box = less movement of paper clips. Anecdotally, the longer paper clips stay in the container on my desk, the greater the likelihood that when I remove one it will be linked to another. Note that the longer they are on my desk, the number of paper clips in the container drops until I refill it. I'm currently at the point where, when I remove a paper clip, it's more likely to be linked with another than I am to remove a single one.

This is strange to me. I rarely ever have clips clipped together. I keep mine more or less vertically in a jar somewhat like a salt shaker about as big around as a silver dollar. They're not packed tight, and I have big and small in the same container. Awhile ago I picked it up, turned it upside down so some clips fell into my hand. I took one, dumped the rest back in. I can't recall clips ever being attached to each other.

 

[Chesterton]

Ha, I just remembered the line from that Pink Floyd song - "I've got ... the inevitable pinhole burns now all down the front of my favorite satin shirt". But that's easily explicable for some of us.

 

[Apple Sky]

Exactly. All of mine are black, and I haven't noticed that any them have gone missing.

How do you know, have you counted them ? The pinching sock fairy could get to you too.

 

[Servus]

How do you know, have you counted them ? The pinching sock fairy could get to you too.

I said that I haven't noticed that any them have gone missing. Noticed being the keyword.

 

[Derf]

I wish CF were more well-trafficked, so I decided to do my tiny part by posting more and making more threads. Of course an increase in the quantity of threads will mean a decrease in the quality, as you can tell from the title.

It seems counter-intuitive given that the back of the shirt presses against the backs of chairs when I sit, and against a wall if I lean against one, but the front rarely touches anything. Yet over the years holes have appeared in the front, rarely ever in the back. Of course I asked AI about this, and got an answer which seems possibly insightful yet possibly bogus. But I've been told I need human interaction in my life, so, any thoughts on this? Are anyone's experiences similar? Or different?

The shooter is in front of you. That's why the holes appear first in the front, and then in the back second.

 

[Chesterton]

I said that I haven't noticed that any them have gone missing. Noticed being the keyword.

 

[Chesterton]

The shooter is in front of you. That's why the holes appear first in the front, and then in the back second.

I've been meaning to have those holes in my torso checked out.

 

[Derf]

I've been meaning to have those holes in my torso checked out.

But more seriously, if you work with acid or with course or abrasive things, they might cause some holes. Or if your chest is hairier than your back...

 

[Chesterton]

But more seriously, if you work with acid or with course or abrasive things, they might cause some holes. Or if your chest is hairier than your back...

Only abrasive thing I have to work with is my wife.

 

[sjastro]

As everyone knows toast always lands on the buttered side when dropped on the floor and cats land on their feet. So what happens when buttered toast facing upwards is strapped on the back of a cat which is then dropped from a great height?
This is one of the great mysteries of science and since Chatgpt-5 joked about my sock analogy I posed the question.

ChatGPT has turned into a comedian.