Not so important science

[Super Nova]

While some science is appears not important, knot theory is important in building new structures in nature. Knotted molecules have interest features, strength, flexibility ...etc.

However this one... well you be the judge of how important it is.

Shoe science explains knottiest of problems

It is the great tragedy of shoelaces. From the moment they are tied, they are destined to become untied.
That is the conclusion of scientists who have studied the shoelace knot and found that it seems almost uniquely ill-suited to survive a walking gait. Instead, it will always come undone eventually, usually suddenly and unexpectedly.
Or, as they put it, “the failure of the knot happens in a matter of seconds, often without warning, and is catastrophic”. Especially so, presumably, if you trip up afterwards.
Oliver O’Reilly, from the University of California, Berkeley, said that the research was inspired by personal experience. “My shoelaces have always come untied,” he said. So when he was teaching his daughter how to tie hers he sought expert advice. “I found wonderful videos on YouTube. But there were no videos showing why they became untied, which struck me as unusual.”
He decided to rectify this. He got his PhD student Christine Gregg to run on a treadmill until her laces came undone, while filming with a slow-motion camera. “Christine started running and we were really surprised. For a long time nothing happened, then everything happened really quickly — in a few strides.” He found there was a gradual, hidden, loosening which precipitated a total collapse of the knot.

To try to establish what was causing this, Christine tried leg-swinging while sitting on a table, and foot stomping. Neither resulted in the shoelaces coming undone. It required both together, even with a loosely tied knot. Next, for his research in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, Professor O’Reilly attached instruments to the laces to see why this might be. “We put an accelerometer on a knot, and we were surprised the g- forces were so large.” With each stomp, the knot experienced 7g, more than that found on any rollercoaster. “The hypothesis is the knot opens up as you run, from the sheer amount of forces.”
That was a necessary, but not sufficient condition though. The swing was also needed, as well as the stomp. “The shoelaces move back and forth, putting a force on the bows and ends.” As the knot opens “you get slippage and at the end with the higher inertial force this will get larger”. Once slippage starts, this rapidly pulls the laces undone.
Predicting when though, said Professor O’Reilly, was difficult. “The tipping point was really difficult for us to spot,” he said. “That in itself explains our experience. You are walking along and everything is fine and suddenly, ‘Boom!’ they’re gone — and you realise you are about to trip over your shoelaces.”
His conclusion is that we should just accept retying shoelaces to be one of the minor misfortunes of the human condition. “It’s inevitable they will fail. You’re deforming the knot, and it’s only a matter of time before they go.”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news ... -wmpq3pg2z

[AiA in Atlanta]

Years back I picked up a little book called "The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie" written by two scientists who proved there are exactly 85 ways to tie a necktie. I thought there were only a handful of ways. The book has diagrams and is actually useful. Not that I wear a tie much these days ...

[Super Nova]

I read an article I na science rag that talked about knot theory. The maths was scary but the importance of this was clear. Knots form all the time in nature and is real science and is starting to impact us. new materials are being produced soon for general usage that have long molecules Knoted together with some interesting properties.

Man, what a wonderful universe it will be in 100,000 years if we don't kill ourselves.

The pace of discovering in the last 100 year is mind blowing and we still don't know much about how the universe works at the micro level and at the macro level. Jut some good ideas for what is in between.