Physicists explain why your earphones are always tangled

[Leigha]

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

[Magical Realist]

Reminds me of untangling strings of Christmas lights every year.

[Leigha]

Reminds me of untangling strings of Christmas lights every year.

haha Exactly. It's always been confusing to me, especially, when I lay a necklace into a jewelry box, separate and away from other necklaces, only to return to it a few days later, and it's tangled. 

[Secular Sanity]

And there's a physics hack for this. I used to always do this. Works like a charm but now I have AirPods. I love them but guess what happened to me. I didn't set the tapping thingy correctly and it would just start calling random people on my iPhone. One of them was someone that I no longer care for. I looked at the number and thought...NOOooo!

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/ussGiA1aHi4

[Leigha]

Nice ^^ thanks!

I found a life hack online for untangling necklaces:

Put some olive oil on the knotted parts of the necklace, then use a needle to poke through the knots. Then, shake powder over the area and it should pull the knots apart. I don't think the powder is necessary, not sure what that would really do, honestly.

[Syne]

I always just wrap my earbud wires.

[stryder]

I found a rather neat way of keeping cables untangled, but that was only after my sister had someone help her pack her band equipment up and she found all the cables stored in a bizarre manner.  It looked odd originally because it's not how you'd usually see a coil or figure of eight method of storing cables, instead it actually involves folding the cable in half first, then using the doubled up cable from the middle to create a loop, then pull a loop through the loop, and loop through that loop until you get all the way to the bottom of the cable where you eventually just pull both ends through the last loop.  The very middle of the cable creates an eye that can be used to hang the cable up.

If you are in a hurry to unravel the cable (Such as preparing for a band set), you just move the ends from the last loop, then one by one how the above loop while pulling on the ends, each loop then unravels into more length until eventually the whole cable is unravelled.  
It also works with lengths of ethernet cable, so it's definitely something to reduce problems at data centres.

[Image: cabletidy.png]

[Leigha]

I found a rather neat way of keeping cables untangled, but that was only after my sister had someone help her pack her band equipment up and she found all the cables stored in a bizarre manner.  It looked odd originally because it's not how you'd usually see a coil or figure of eight method of storing cables, instead it actually involves folding the cable in half first, then using the doubled up cable from the middle to create a loop, then pull a loop through the loop, and loop through that loop until you get all the way to the bottom of the cable where you eventually just pull both ends through the last loop.  The very middle of the cable creates an eye that can be used to hang the cable up.

If you are in a hurry to unravel the cable (Such as preparing for a band set), you just move the ends from the last loop, then one by one how the above loop while pulling on the ends, each loop then unravels into more length until eventually the whole cable is unravelled.  
It also works with lengths of ethernet cable, so it's definitely something to reduce problems at data centres.

[Image: cabletidy.png]

Ah, that's brilliant! 

I was going to ask, is this a pain to unravel? But, looks like you've got it sorted out. 

So, I meant to share this - I bought a necklace holder, that allows you to hang necklaces, by looping them around horizontal cylinders that are connected together. The overall necklace hanger latches over a door. So, my necklaces are still becoming tangled. Of course, this is due to the fact that the they are being slightly jostled every time I open the bathroom door. But, nowhere near as awful as they were, when sitting in my jewelry box. 

They tangle weirdly when hanging, though. They seem to ''catch'' around the pendant area, and then coil around one another, that way. Maybe I have too many necklaces. 

[Seattle]

Practical string theory. I'm all for that. It seems everything I do involves tangled "stuff".

In climbing, you have to "flake" your rope to untangle it. When you get to the middle of a long pile of rope it seems there is always a knot there. Guitar cords are similar. Untangling regulator hoses in scuba is a mess.