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Mechanical engineers at UC Berkeley are doing you a huge favor: They just completed a study on why your darn shoelaces keep coming untied. While they couldn’t identify every factor that causes the unraveling — or how to prevent it, beyond the “tie ‘em tighter!” axiom — they did uncover some fascinating information about the process.
The study, titled “The roles of impact and inertia in the failure of a shoelace knot,” which will be published on Wednesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A, concludes that the invisible forces of physics act upon your laces in exactly the same way your hand does when you untie them. While different types of knots have varying levels of effectiveness, these researchers believe that they all fail the same way:
The study had two components. The researchers observed a runner’s shoelaces while she jogged on a treadmill; they also simulated the collision of a shoe hitting the ground by attaching a tied lace to an impacting pendulum. They filmed these experiments with a slow-motion camera and shared the footage with the public. Check out the physics in action below.
Read more here. (Inverse)
The study, titled “The roles of impact and inertia in the failure of a shoelace knot,” which will be published on Wednesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A, concludes that the invisible forces of physics act upon your laces in exactly the same way your hand does when you untie them. While different types of knots have varying levels of effectiveness, these researchers believe that they all fail the same way:
The study had two components. The researchers observed a runner’s shoelaces while she jogged on a treadmill; they also simulated the collision of a shoe hitting the ground by attaching a tied lace to an impacting pendulum. They filmed these experiments with a slow-motion camera and shared the footage with the public. Check out the physics in action below.
Read more here. (Inverse)
