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December 30, 2007
Knots in a Box, Christmas Lights, iPods, etc.
I have spent so much time recently (don't ask) thinking about spontaneous knot formation that my eyes nearly crossed with glee upon spotting this article about tangles. The following snippet is downright spooky:
They put a string in a cubic container the size of a box of tissue. By tumbling the box 10 times "like a laundry dryer," as Raymer puts it, the researchers hoped to observe knots forming spontaneously on occasion. They didn't have to wait for long: Knots formed right away...
And some of the knots formed were remarkably complex. It is immense consolation, of course, to anyone who has tried to hurriedly put on iPhone earpieces, or taken Christmas lights out of storage.
[PNAS via ScienceNews via Slashdot]
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I wind my earphones in a figure 8 around two fingers. Works like a charm! (Christmas lights and extension cords too). There, I've done my public service for the day.
Knots forming by themselves!! This is spooky.
Thank God -- I thought it was just me. Every time I try to uncoil the extension cord or the Christmas lights, I have to stop myself from throwing the whole mess over the fence into the ravine.