# The Physics of Rugs

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physics-of-rugs/937667>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 11, 2021, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physics-of-rugs/937667 "2021-03-11T01:42:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physics-of-rugs/937667/41 "2021-03-16T05:53:45Z")

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> [@Dr.Strangelove](#):
>
> During the long, cold winter nights, small patches of ice form under the rugs. Later, when the sun comes out, the ice melts and forms a lubricating layer that the rugs can easily slide over. Ambient wind and other forces displace the rugs before the water evaporates, leaving only a dusty trail on the cracked playa.

Yeah, it’s this. Or ghosts.

> [@Richard\_Pearse](#):
>
> I suspect the carpet pile is tending to lie in the direction the rug moves

Is that even a thing on short pile carpet? I guess I never thought of that before.

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**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physics-of-rugs/937667/42 "2021-03-16T14:37:48Z")

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I cheat. I fed Discourse some lower case stuff inside of pointy brackets. They count for “all upper case detection” but don’t display because they’re garbage HTML tags that browsers politely ignore.

```
ALL YELLING STUFF <and sacrificial undisplayed lowercase>

```

ALL YELLING STUFF

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**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2021, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-physics-of-rugs/937667/43 "2021-03-22T22:18:28Z")

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Could you get your hand on one of those plastic rug protectors that go under desk chairs and put it under the rugs? If that stops the migration then it has to be the pile acting like small little ratchets.

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