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Unraveling of Shoelaces Studied

posted by mrpg on Thursday April 13 2017, @01:15PM   
from the string-theory dept.

butthurt writes:

You put on your shoes, tie them as firmly as possible, but soon after the laces come undone.

Now scientists think they know what causes one of life's knotty problems.

[...] The researchers say an understanding of shoelaces can be applied to other structures, such as DNA.

[...] They found that when running, your foot strikes the ground at seven times the force of gravity.

Responding to that force, the knot stretches and then relaxes.

As the knot loosens, the swinging leg applies an inertial force on the free ends of the laces, leading to rapid unravelling in as little as two strides.

BBC News

related stories:
Untangling the Mechanics of Knots
Useful Dead Technologies Redux

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Original Submission

• Re:one word (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @12:02AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @12:02AM (#493714)

  No, it takes a couple more words than that. Tie them bow-around-a-bow. That is, double knot them. Of course, those of you who never learned how to tie a bow certainly won't know how to make double bows.

  I purchased a book called The Klutz Book of Knots, which contained their own strings for practice. Inside there was a knot called something like "the better shoelace knot", or something to that effect, but the only difference was that you did two loops around your thumb. I have used that knot for years, and very rarely have to re-lace my shoes. Can't really recall the last time that knot failed. You just have to be careful to pull the ends slowly when releasing the knot, in case it starts to make a square knot.

  Parent