[CougarGA7]

I do have a theory on this and it may help you with your research.

1st. Sock have an finite lifespan. They are only good for so many cycles in a dryer and that’s it. Unfortunately, no one knows what that number is and it is different for each individual sock.

2nd. There is no such thing as lint. Lint does not exist in the known universe and no clothing item releases lint. HOWEVER,....

When that poor defenseless sock which has already survived it’s final dryer cycle we still cold-heartedly thow it in the dryer that one last time and....POOOF!!!! It turns into this pure fibrus substance that we unwittingly call “lint”.

So in fact the missing sock was there all the time. It was just in a new form in the lint filter.

[Grizzled Bear]

Lint could be the residue of a pan-dimensional vortex. A sock could be sucked through. To balance things out the lint enters our dimension.

I want to believe.

[GunHoardingCapitalist]

“The rest of the universe is split up between dark matter (about 21 percent), a mysterious type of matter that has yet to be identified but that is thought to have played a critical role in the development of the first galaxies that formed after the Big Bang, and the even more mysterious dark energy (about 75 percent of the universe), which causes the accelerated expansion of the universe.”

With the increasing population on our planet would require more socks for the population, resulting in increased “Lost sock” occurrences. Perhaps once the sock has reached its final cycle it is transformed into said dark energy, hence for the “accelerated expansion of the universe”.