On 2021-03-09 6:46 p.m., Rod Speed wrote:


"nospam" wrote in message
...
In article , Rod Speed
wrote:

If you wind the cord from your earbuds into a circle, they
always get
tangled when you try to use them.

If you fold them over and over until they're short enough to put
where
you want them, they unfold with much less gangling than the method
above.Â* At least in my experience.


There must be some branch of science or math or industry that deals
with
stuff like this.Â*Â* Anyone know?

Yep, ergonomics.

not ergonomics.

it's called knot theory.

Tangling isnt a knot.

go read the research paper

Which has nothing to do with the theory, ****wit.



"Spontaneous knotting of an agitated string"

https://www.pnas.org/content/104/42/16432.full

And from that:

"We used mathematical knot theory to analyze the knots. Above a critical
string length, the probability P of knotting at first increased sharply
with length but then saturated below 100%"