Final answer:
Nike tennis shoes lost at sea helped oceanographers study ocean currents when these buoyant objects were distributed across the oceans and their locations were tracked as they washed ashore.
Step-by-step explanation:
The incident involving NIKE tennis shoes lost at sea is a notable example of serendipitous oceanographic research. In 1990, a cargo container filled with thousands of Nike shoes fell overboard, and due to the durable nature and buoyancy of these shoes, they were gradually distributed across the oceans.
Oceanographers used this unexpected event as a natural experiment to study and better understand ocean currents and drift patterns. This real-world case was similar to the deployment of purposefully designed drifters or buoys used for scientific study of marine currents, but with a much larger number of individual, trackable items. By monitoring where the shoes washed ashore, scientists were able to gather valuable data on currents, notably contributing to the field of oceanography.