Physicists explain why your earphones are always tangled

when-you-put-your-hand-inside-a-pocket-tangled-veins-just-like-headphones-cable.jpg
 
So they're forming true knots (i.e. requiring the threading of an string end), not just overlapping loops.

Sounds to me like a very simple partial fix is to have the loose ends clip together before you put them away.

I imagine if some enterprising young inventor stuck a couple of neodymium magnets in the buds and the jack - when brought together, they'd form a loop, resulting in vastly reduced tangling.

There's a billion dollar idea for you wegs. When you'counting your cash, don't forget where you got the idea.
 
I'd always vaguely put it down to the 2nd law of TD: there are more ways they can be in a tangled configuration than an untangled configuration, but I'd never thought it through like this. Looks like the sort of thing physicists would argue about after dinner, over a bottle of something in the graduate common room. Nice!
 
wegs said:
Well, I'm not the only one who gets upset over the ''spontaneous'' tangling and knotting of ear phone wires, and this would apply to necklaces, as well. It's maddening! At last, a scientific explanation for this phenomenon; this is a helpful read.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/s...nation-earphones-always-tangled/#.XOA8pY7Yr8k
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The human manipulation may be necessary - the hands pulling the loops through, rather than purely "spontaneous" braiding. Reason for suspicion: an old boater's trick for clearing a rope tangle is to throw it overboard into the wake - the random jostling seems to favor, eventually, the unknotted or mostly unknotted line. Also, that's how I get knots in my garden hose - by picking a lower bight up through a loop. They don't form by themselves.
 
people stuff them into their pockets
they also hold them at a length where the ear plugs hang down and twist.
they then stuff them into bags and pockets
when they pull them out, they pull them out by a single wire
the extraction process is a tightening pulling action
the putting away process is a compressing action

if they wound them in a loop around their hand prior to putting them in a pocket by themselves and pick the entire bundle up at once when getting them out, they would rarely tangle.
additionally
the length to end ratio of hand width is equidistant to the ends
when people bundle them into their hands, they allow the ends to hang just over the end of their hands.
these aspects are all critical.

i just realized i am missing a pair of ear plugs
 
Oh, I found a great life hack for packing necklaces in a suitcase to ensure that they won’t tangle in transit: slip each necklace through an individual drinking straw, and tape the ends of the straw so the necklace doesn’t slip out. I must try this!

I’m going to try an experiment by hanging five or so necklaces on a doorknob, and see if they tangle. I’m just wondering if “hanging” necklaces, (as opposed to laying them flat) despite being in close proximity (touching each other) would decrease the odds of tangling? *hmm*
 
Now they can work on why, as one Minion put it

The divorce rate amongst my socks is so high?

:)
 
wegs said:
I’m going to try an experiment by hanging five or so necklaces on a doorknob, and see if they tangle. I’m just wondering if “hanging” necklaces, (as opposed to laying them flat) despite being in close proximity (touching each other) would decrease the odds of tangling? *hmm*
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But those are closed loops. They can overlap, but they can't get knotted.
 
Can't say I've ever had this problem--lessons from AV club (or nautical sorts) are invaluable. In short: never leave cables, cords, rope, etc. lying in a jumble.
 
What caught my attention with that article is that it relates to laying down earphones' long wires or necklaces, in a straight line. And then the next day, the wire is knotted or necklaces are ''mysteriously'' tangled around other necklaces in the jewelry box, etc. That's what stumped me, the ''spontaneous'' tangling that seems to transpire when my back turns.
 
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As suspected, my door knob experiment proved to be a fail. The necklaces of course, ended up tangling despite hanging, as opposed to being laid flat. But that could be due to the fact that I’m opening and shutting the door, thus disrupting the necklaces. So, one more test I’m trying - I bought a hanging jewelry organizer and it fastens onto your door or mirror and you line necklaces up side by side, looping them over a horizontal thin cylinder. (Looks like a bird’s perch)

Spacing them out half in inch apart, so this might be the best remedy.
 
wegs said:
What caught my attention with that article is that it relates to laying down earphones' long wires or necklaces, in a straight line. And then the next day, the wire is knotted or necklaces are ''mysteriously'' tangled around other necklaces in the jewelry box, etc. That's what stumped me, the ''spontaneous'' tangling that seems to transpire when my back turns.
Click to expand...

you may be referring to the space-time-continuum of TangleVerse

have you tried placing a small toy in the box for them to play with instead.
 
wegs said:
As suspected, my door knob experiment proved to be a fail. The necklaces of course, ended up tangling despite hanging, as opposed to being laid flat. But that could be due to the fact that I’m opening and shutting the door, thus disrupting the necklaces. So, one more test I’m trying - I bought a hanging jewelry organizer and it fastens onto your door or mirror and you line necklaces up side by side, looping them over a horizontal thin cylinder. (Looks like a bird’s perch)

Spacing them out half in inch apart, so this might be the best remedy.
Click to expand...

technical issue
any 18 and above gold, & silver is likely to be crushed and split with pressure.
specially the connector break-links main connector link

can you just stick it in the middle of a raspberry roll cake
raspberry-roll-cake-1-22-735x1103.jpg

s-l300.jpg
 
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