winter morning have experienced this trouble. The frost covered the ground, the sun had not yet appeared, and the thin ice on the road was accumulated. When you walk on the road, you can slip down without being careful. Light is the bitterness of the flesh and the weight of the flesh.
residents in Dunedin, New Zealand South Island, have similar problems. In this port city, most residents live in the meandering mountains, and each day they go to work in the inner city surrounded by mountains. According to the Otago times, the thin ice on the downhill road in winter has caused a lot of traffic accidents, causing security risks to the people of Dunedin working in the city daily.
there is an old folk prescription handed down in Dunedin: hosiery is worn outside the shoes to prevent slipping on the ice. This funny story is also adopted by Dunedin city hall. On its official website, the city hall details a variety of suggestions for the safety of the residents, including: "putting old socks on the shoes and walking outside the shoes can increase friction." Does
folk wisdom from generation to generation, or official notification from government departments, represent facts and truths? Scientists don't think so. Their belief is that only strict contrast experiments prove that they are the criteria for testing scientific facts. So the epidemiologists at University of Otago took seriously the "sock out of the way to prevent skid" with a practical attitude of "spoof".
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the first step in scientific research is usually literature search. The researchers used keywords such as "ice", "socks", "slipping", "prevention" and other keywords to find relevant information in the database and library, and did not get any useful information. Researcher Parkin and others call it "surprisingly important missing links in anti slip research".
but to make up for this study, it's not a proof of personal verification, or "my two aunt is not good", "listen to a colleague and say it is OK" to be the evidence of the experiment. Researchers have designed a randomized controlled experiment. According to the general flow of epidemiological studies, they recruited volunteers, divided into experimental groups (socks outside group) and control group (normal footwear group), and chose the most effective way of experimentation - to let volunteers walk through a steep ice road to observe their walking behavior.
the steep mountain road chosen by the researchers calls Baldwin street. The Guinness world record calls it the steepest street in the world, and the steepest slope is 19 degrees. Experiments are carried out here, and the effect is clear at a glance. But this experiment is too dangerous, affecting the safety of volunteers and the legality of experiments. Besides, walking thin ice on steep slopes, volunteers and researchers have to walk on their backs. Obviously, people do not like this.
scientists reluctantly gave up this experimental method and turned to another safety point plan. They choose a mountain road leading to the University. Every researcher has experienced the painful skating experience on this mountain road. The researchers intercepted pedestrians on the mountain road to ask for volunteers to participate in the experiment. The participants were required to register all kinds of information: the experience of walking on the ice, the experience of slipping on the ice, the familiarity of the mountain road and so on, their shoes were also photographed.
the experimental participants were randomly assigned to the experimental group and the control group at the proportion of 1:1. The volunteers in the experimental group were assigned a pair of conforming acrylic socks to be placed outside the shoes, and all the volunteers were asked to walk according to normal walking conditions. In order to prevent researchers from changing the experimenters' behavior, especially to prevent young men from playing with their eyes, the experimenters were given special orders to avoid deliberate behavior.
researchers divided ice skating into 5 levels: non slip, slippery, slippery, slippery, very slippery. After the experiment, volunteers need to report the level of personal experience and the number of falls. For the objective of the experiment, the researchers also observed the experimenters' walking behavior and gave each experimenter a score: "walk very steadily", "hold the railings or the roadside car", "climb over" and so on for comparison. The travel time of the experimenter was also recorded for reference.
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in order to make the experiment fair, objective and effective, the researchers took pains.
double-blind test is a very important factor in epidemiological experiments. This means that neither the experimenters nor the researchers can know whether the experimenters are wearing socks before the experiment. The experimenter may have the psychological hint of "walking without slippery" because of wearing socks, and changing the way of walking speed, posture, and other experimental methods, affect the effect of the experiment. Psychological hints may also lead to bias when the experimenters report the results, or may make the researchers fail to observe. However, in this experiment, no matter researchers or experimenters, it is inevitable to know the fact that "wearing socks" or not.
Parkin tried every means to reduce the impact of non double blind tests on the experimental results. To prevent the experimenter from getting the suggestion that socks can be skid, all researchers must wear normal shoes. To confuse the hearing, the experimenter and the participants in the record were told only that the experiment was only to test the performance of different shoes and socks, and to work hard to convince the experimenters in the details of the experiments.
all the shoes of the participants were photographed and left behind. This gives the experimenter a hint that shoes are more important to the experiment. The experimental socks are the same material and brand. There are three kinds of colors, which are randomly distributed to the volunteers in the experimental group to make "the socks have different" hints. All the trademarks of the socks are carefully removed by the main leaders of the experiment, in order to prevent the fashion people from recognizing the quality of the socks and giving psychological hints.
these additional experiments suggest that the experimenter can reduce the psychological implications of the socks themselves, and that different shoes and socks have different effects, and that the shoes and socks are the object of the experiment, and not to walk in socks and walk differently from day to day, thus affecting the experimental data. Fortunately, most of the experimenters have not heard of the special function of socks. The researchers then conducted statistical analysis of all the experimental data to ensure more effective data.
another important factor affecting the experiment is the freezing condition of the road surface. In order to ensure data consistency, all experiments were completed within one day. But it is not easy to find a day with perfect frozen roads. Not every winter night has enough humidity to form thin ice. The director of the Epidemiology Department of University of Otago provides advice for researchers: splashing water on the road to create ice. But in order not to create trouble for pedestrians, the researchers rejected the chairman's advice. But when the ice really comes, the road is frozen for thousands of miles. The researchers could not enter the experimental area, and there were few pedestrians on the road. The researchers waited patiently for a long time to wait until the perfect day.
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not every experiment has a good result, but the result of "socks outside" is very beautiful. In the result of experimenter's self perception, socks wear out can significantly reduce the probability of slipping. The researchers also reported that socks were worn to make pedestrians more stable. Only the control group wearing socks can fall on the mountain road. The volunteers of the experimental group said in the report, "socks are so good!" "I want to recommend the way socks are worn out to those who are not walking steadily." Experimental facts have proved that wearing socks on shoes and walking can really help prevent skidding.
this research result has greatly encouraged the researchers. The next experiment in their plan includes: "will wool socks be better than synthetic socks?" "Which kind of socks is the most economical and effective?" This experiment also provides more practical experience for future plans. The researchers, published in the New Zealand Journal of medicine, proposed that future experiments need to provide a thick blanket for volunteers to sit in socks, the size of socks should be larger, and a hot water bag for heating.
in the final "competitive interest" column of research papers published by researchers is usually a place for scientists to prevaricate. But Parkin and other scientists still do not forget humor: "as far as I know, we have no competitive interests with others. None of the authors had money relations with socks manufacturers, and none of us had sheep.
although socks wear out has practical effects, social pressure may not be able to make this method popular. Volunteers who were involved in the experiment were given the stockings for their own use, but most of them returned socks to the researchers. Even a young boy slipped and fell quickly after returning his socks, and he did not ask for socks again. In the report, a volunteer in the experimental group said, "socks can really prevent skidding, but I do not wear them to school." "
coincidentally, as early as 1989, two researchers in the United States surveyed 7 children aged between 7 and 11, asking them to evaluate their peers. 82% of the children think that putting socks on their shoes is an extremely weird behavior, like "eating like a pig", "hitting a table with a head", "like a car like a car," and "like a monster like action".
scientists may find that methods can not be widely promoted. But this humorous study also enabled Parkin and other scientists to win the 2010 Nobel prize in physics for their "scientific interpretation of the winter thin ice road, which helps to prevent skidding." "Our research is very interesting, but it is related to a very important public health problem - slipping," Parkin said in an interview with the media. We are very happy to win the funny Nobel prize. "