Missing items

There was a Twilight Zone episode that explained this.

It turns out that every second of every day is constructed new from scratch and every now and then, the construction crew fails to put something in its proper place.  When they discover their mistake, they correct it some time later.

It's true, saw it on TV...

Rusty

Quantum theory explains it. Reality is not absolute, it is only probabilistic. At any given moment, there is a 99.999999...% probability that any given particle actually exists, but not a 100% certainty. Furthermore, a particle can exist and not exist, or exist in two places, until its actual state is observed (i.e. Schrodinger's cat, which is both alive and dead until we look in the box to see which it is). Therefore, your missing parts simply disappear and reappear in accordance with quantum probabilities.

Alternatively, they may be going into a chrono-synclastic infundibulum. See Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan for an explanation of the chrono-synclastic infundibulum. I don't recall the physics; I haven't read the book since college. 

glad to hear the gremlins are spending some time away from my place.

Gravity sometimes works in strange ways.  Small items, when dropped, can accelerate past the speed of light and actually enter a time warp.  When that happens, no amount of searching will locate the item that has warped into the future.  Just give it up and come back later.  Of course it will then be right where it fell.  I have witnessed this several times.  My tools also seem to wander off on their own.  I was just using those needle nose pliers, set them down and now they're not here anymore.  My solution to that problem is to have several duplicates of common tools.  If one wanders off, I just go get one of the others.  That usually shames the wanderer into returning!

I agree on having duplicates!

My wife always asks me when I'm buying something if I don't already have it. My response is yes and I want to find it again so I'm buying this set!

Dave

Glad to know this critter leaves Rockwall TX from time to time, it always knows when I am working on trains. I have found having tools at different locations helps.

Brent

It, is the 'UNKNOWN FACTOR!!!!!'

Nothing lost, nor nothing gained!!!!

Go figure?!!

Due to my age of not having the eyes of an eagle, hands of a surgeon, nor the patience of a Saint, ANYMORE, I find mysterious things happening!

When, I was younger, I was more interested and practiced MAGIC, now I don't even have to do anything, things just disappear and reappear by themselves!!!!

My son bought me a large magnet, with a telescopic handle to find ferrous metallic objects, which get lost by themselves!

Ralph

Wow, 99.99, twilight,Quantum theory. Hear I thought it was just getting to be an old buzzard.

As recently as yesterday while working under the layout, my wire cutters disappeared only to reappear a few minutes latter. I'm convinced that the missing tools travel to the land of "missing socks", but unlike the socks they only visit and eventually return after a futile search followed by replacement.

Eric Hofberg

TCA, LCCA   

let me postulate this, Cuold it be that certain persons collective perception of reality is evolving and as more of us continue to evolve we can drag everyones collective perceptions to a new level of thought? sort of 100 monkey theory, coca colas perception is everything model, cause this happens to me when I'm most focused on a task then switch gears for a second  and bam said item is gone only to return precisely where you had looked for it previously. also does this happen to non Oscalers as well after all its O scale or no scale right

Reverse Hallucination, the phenomenon of not seeing something that is actually there.

Pete

Jerry

When I drop a small screw or the like they are never ever found again. I think there is a black hole in my floor where stuff just disappears never to be seen again. 

I did loose a 8 car passenger set for about 4 days, don't ask me how it happened. 

I am always surprised at how far and in which directions small parts bounce to. My procedure when this happens: Do not disturb anything, get a flashlight and get down on your knees and carefully look round, even in the most improbable places. Chances are you will be lucky.

Our eyes have trouble adjusting focus as we age because the stuff that's trying to be adjusted isn't as plastic as it was when we were younger and the muscles we're try to use to force the changes are weaker.  It just takes longer to refocus.  That's why the item can "suddenly appear".   You can try adding more light to the work area and/or more than one source.  Sometimes crossing shadows will draw your attention and help with refocussing.  Bifocal glasses can help but they can also make things worse.  There are "zones" of focus and stuff can wind up in a dead zone or actually in the split between the lenses and you get refractive dead spots.

Only advice I have is get a yearly eye exam and try adding more light.  Also, moving your body around instead of just your head can sometimes get the object into one of the zones you do see clearly in.  None of this is as amusing as transdimensional rips but hopefully it helps explain that you aren't going blind or crazy Or that someone else in the house is trying to gaslight you.

What bugs me is that in the process of looking for such stuff I usually bang my head pretty good.  At the airport it draws blood at least once a year.  

I keep spare everything.  I am now looking for a pile of cast air hoses for a couple of locomotive pilots.  I know I have enough, just do not know where they went.

On the other hand, while searching, I am finding stuff I had no idea I had.

My tools and spares have never been quite the same since I used the Quantum Elevator rather than carry them up the stairs. 

Had this happen too often so have had 2 brain scans & yes I do have one, good news no strokes or old age related issues just a form of migraines.

James

Shadow people at work here.

I was recently tested for Alzheimers for many of the reasons discussed here.  It was a series of physical and mental (some written) evaluations.  After a short wait for the results to be finalized I had a sit down with the Doctor.  He said, "You may be having memory difficulties, but you do NOT have Alzheimers".  All I could think of to ask was "Doc, how do I know you don't have it?".  Thankfully, he has a good sense of humor.

Science? Nope. Who you gonna call: GHOSTBUSTERS!

Actually, I am making light of this, but it has happened to me on a number of occasions. Sometimes it takes days or weeks for something to reappear where it was last seen. I have no rational explanation, but I can furnish any number of irrational ones. 

The Cab 1L I ordered must be on a Quantum Elevator somewhere.  I hope it gets to my floor some day soon.

Bucky,

   Not only do I experience the problems you do, I have my Gun dogs actually taking

tools, and other things I am working with, to play with.  They hide the stuff, driving me

about half crazy, then my wife returns the stuff, putting it in a different place from where I originally layed it down.  Engineers are allowed to talk to themselves, and I am very very good at it.  The conversation never degrades.

PCRR/Dave

Bucky,

I think these parts end up in a parallel universe.  During the fall, they reach terminal velocity and cross over into it.  Occasionally, they wander back into our dimension. 

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

George

All good stuff here.  This post brings me many smiles, having had many, if not all the experiences.

I have always said that when a tool,car part,train part disappear then reappear, it proof that God has a sense of humor.

I wonder if I have solved this same problem. While assembling the Christmas Carpet Central , as I used them, I  kept  placing my tools together right next to my beer.  Beer NEVER was lost...and neither were the tools.........ergo I may be onto something.

   Cheers...........Prost!

The "lost" item is all ways in the last place I looked.

Sometimes I find it in my shirt pocket or pants chuff.

I go to my storage room to find another tool or part and forget what I was looking for...

What were we chatting about again ?

I have all the above mentioned problems. My memory is getting so bad that by Easter I should be able to hide my own eggs.

Joe B.

Can't see anything without my reading glasses .... Now where are my glasses!!!???

A few years ago I was remodeling my house.  Stripped the walls down to the bare studs and rewired, insulated and installed new dry wall.  Every night before I started work I gathered 12 tape measures, 36 pencils and 12 razor knives.  By the end of the night I couldn't

find anything.

A lot of good explanations here, but I got the real one, it's called "age".

The good news is that this probably happens more often to modelers of the smaller scales.  I'm always surprised at how far a screw or a bolt can travel once it hits the desk or the floor, however, nothing travels a far as a tiny spring when it escapes from a pair of tweezers. 

My solution is to work inside of a tray or box with edges.  Hopefully, any dropped screws or parts will hit the side edges, preventing them from escaping.

Years ago my wife explained to me the concept of Mortimer.

Mortimer is a six inch high gnome who carries out "Murphy's Laws."  He is also responisble for the disappearance and reappearance of various things like writing implements, eye glasses, sox, and tools.  When you can't find a screw drive that means that Mortimer took it.  He will only return it when you have made due with a substitute one.

Stuart

In my experience, when you drop a small part, the odds of finding it greatly increase when you have another one on hand, and really don't need the one you drop. Do not drop a second one to see where it goes, due to magnetic flux repellence. You will never find either one. As far as the tools moving themselves, I sometimes am working at the table, put down a tool, and it disappears, and even though I didn't get off my duff, the tool is at the other end of the train table, which sometimes isn't accessible by human animals. Go figure. 

Train ferrys playing mind games

On a positive note, I did learn something from CSI on TV.  Notice how they always turn on their flashlight at the crime scene?  They don't even turn on the lights!

I have tested this approach and have discovered that (most of the time) it works.  I think that using the beam of the flashlight to focus my attention on a specific area makes things easier to find.

Then again, I have no idea where the money in my wallet has gone by the end of a day at York!

Ed

I call that the impossible bounce.  Drop a small part and it's gone no matter how hard you look on the floor; but somehow it bounced it's way into a tiny crevice or place across the room that you could never hit again in 100 tries!

Situation 1

Situation 2

Don't know what all the fuss is about. Seems perfectly normal to me.