*Original note dated December 21, 2022.
One of those rituals we do in December is putting together the Christmas tree, and of course, besides the decorations, a classic component is the famous Christmas lights surrounding it.
The truth is that one of the most intriguing questions is why these lights always get entangled, and science has an explanation.
In 2007, a group of researchers published a study in a journal. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). For the experiment, they placed ropes of different lengths in a box and mechanically shook it so that the ropes swayed like clothes in a dryer. They repeated this process more than 3,400 times and noticed that knots began to form within seconds of rotating the box. During the experiment, more than 120 types of nodes were formed.
“It didn’t take long for the nodes to form, maybe 10 seconds. “This surprised us,” said a co-author of the study. Douglas Smith, Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). “We immediately started seeing these complex knots begin to form. Everything went very quickly.”
What happened next: the length of the rope affected the likelihood of knots forming. Not surprisingly, as the length of the rope increased (the longest length used in the study was 15 feet, or 4.6 meters), the likelihood of a knot also increased, reaching 100%. According to the study, the material the rope was made from also had an effect, with more flexible ropes causing more knots than stiffer ones.
But perhaps the most important factor leading to knot formation was whether the ends of the ropes were loosened, allowing them to move freely to form tangles.
“It’s really the extremes that create the knot,” he said. Dorian Reimer lead author of the study and former UCSD student. “Sailors probably know better what needs to be controlled, how it will end [de una cuerda] do to avoid knots. “Otherwise, the ends can move over or under other sections of the rope, eventually causing knots.”
And with Christmas lights, having dozens of lights sticking out of the cord creates even more potential for tangling.
Source: Digital Trends
I am Garth Carter and I work at Gadget Onus. I have specialized in writing for the Hot News section, focusing on topics that are trending and highly relevant to readers. My passion is to present news stories accurately, in an engaging manner that captures the attention of my audience.
