How do things get tangled?

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I understand that if I stuff my headphones in my bag in a bunch, that it's likely that the cords might get crossed here and there. But I don't get how they get tangled up into huge knots that I have to spend five minutes undoing, threading them in and out through dozens of loops.

I mean, it stands to reason that if I'm doing all that work to UNTANGLE them, some work needed to be done somehow to TANGLE them. But when? I'm nearly convinced that the cords do it themselves when I'm not looking.

Okay, I'm going to lunch. When I come back, you'll have solved this, I trust.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 24 February 2005 18:37 (twenty years ago)

ghosts, yo

― Who did release magic family out from the base of $499 (deangulberry), Thursday, 24 February 2005 18:41 (twenty years ago)

Fat ghosts.

― Huk-L, Thursday, 24 February 2005 18:41 (twenty years ago)

Is it a messenger bag/man-purse? Cord-tangling is a natural function of this type of bag. A feature, even.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 24 February 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

Actually, I've been wondering the exact same thing, about headphones that is.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 24 February 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

This keeps me up at night. I'm unable to eat.

― Who did release magic family out from the base of $499 (deangulberry), Thursday, 24 February 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

riding up

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 24 February 2005 18:45 (twenty years ago)

It is a messenger bag.

You people are NO HELP.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 24 February 2005 18:57 (twenty years ago)

yeah i don't buy riding up either, i wear a peacoat with big ass pockets, i'll stick my headphones in a pocket for two minutes to buy a cup of coffee and when i pull them out they're crazy twisted. with barely any movement at all. there is some sort of screaming carrott phenom going on here.

― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 24 February 2005 19:00 (twenty years ago)

http://www.sptimes.com/2002/01/27/photos/biz-slinky.jpg

― andy ---, Thursday, 24 February 2005 19:23 (twenty years ago)

The universe tends towards entanglement, that's string theory.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 24 February 2005 19:45 (twenty years ago)

By keepin' on like a bird that flew?

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 24 February 2005 19:50 (twenty years ago)

ENTROPY

― Zebra, Alpha Go! (cprek), Thursday, 24 February 2005 19:54 (twenty years ago)

four years pass...

Still a mystery.

― M. Grissom/DeShields (jaymc), Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:24 (sixteen years ago)

embrace the tangle

― velko, Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:25 (sixteen years ago)

this is a good question, i think it has to do with physics

― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:27 (sixteen years ago)

maybe wormholes

― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:27 (sixteen years ago)

(tangled) string theory

― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:28 (sixteen years ago)

ENTROPY

― Zebra, Alpha Go! (cprek), Thursday, 24 February 2005 19:54 (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

― surfing on hokusine waves (ledge), Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:29 (sixteen years ago)

twisted cables = stored potential energy duh

― steamed hams (harbl), Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:31 (sixteen years ago)

hey jaymc does this search help?

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/search?query=tangled&action=search

― pariah carey (Mr. Que), Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:31 (sixteen years ago)

Is there really a race of blue people?

― steamed hams (harbl), Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:32 (sixteen years ago)

haha that's funny i remember reading that one too

― steamed hams (harbl), Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:32 (sixteen years ago)

Someone on ILX once posted a link to an actual scientific study where a physicist solved this problem, but I have no idea where to find it.

― Tuomas, Thursday, 15 October 2009 18:23 (sixteen years ago)

I think most of the tangling work gets done when you do things like pulling your headphones halfway out of your bag and then dropping them back in, rooting around in your bag for something besides your headphones (pulling them out of the way and resituating them, etc.), pulling just the headphones out and using them and then tossing them back in, pushing other stuff into the bag that shifts the headphones around, even just jostling the bag in general. You keep putting things in different relationships to one another, and then when you draw the headphones out you tighten the knots.

― oɔsıqɐu (nabisco), Thursday, 15 October 2009 18:29 (sixteen years ago)

Never mind headphones, what happened to your username?!

― Tuomas, Thursday, 15 October 2009 18:31 (sixteen years ago)

I don't know what you're talking about, Tuomas.

― oɔsıqɐu (nabisco), Thursday, 15 October 2009 18:32 (sixteen years ago)

read an article abt a scientific study/paper dealing w/just this topic a while ago - prob findable on googles

― ice cr?m, Thursday, 15 October 2009 18:32 (sixteen years ago)

http://www.pnas.org/content/104/44/17243.full

― pariah carey (Mr. Que), Thursday, 15 October 2009 18:35 (sixteen years ago)

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