Member Article

Scientific study untangles tricky knots

Pointless research for today: why knots happen.

Tangled telephone cords and hosepipes that come to resemble bird nests can frazzle even the calmest person. Now researchers have unravelled (hoho) the mystery behind how such knots form.

Douglas Smith and Dorian Raymer of the University of California ran a series of experiments in which they dropped a string into a box and tumbled it for 10 seconds (one revolution per second). They repeated the string-dropping more than 3,000 times varying the length and stiffness of the string, box size and tumbling speed.

Digital photos and video of the tumbling strings revealed that strings shorter than 1.5 feet didn’t form knots; the likelihood of knotting sharply increased as string length went from 1.5 feet to 5 feet, and beyond this length knotting probability levelled off.

The conclusion: While there is no ‘magical knot buster’, Smith advised what all sailors, cowboys, electricians, sewers and knitters know - to avoid tangles, keep a cord or string tied in a coil so it can’t move.

Wow.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .