Probably the method many of you use to tie your shoes is to form a loop with one of the strings, loop the other string around it, and create a second loop. However, this may be the worst way to tie your shoes, as a study published in 2017 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A shows.
“High-speed video observation of the shoelace knot in place showed that failure was a sudden and devastating event,” the researchers write in the paper, and continue: “Observations show impact-induced deformation of the center of the knot, dynamic oscillation of walking motion, and inertia between the free ends of the laces and the knot. It points to a disruption caused by the complex interaction between the forces of
According to the team, hitting the floor with the shoe can loosen the knot, while the impact your legs produce and the loose ends of the knot that dangles further loosen the knot, helping it eventually break down.
“As demonstrated using slow motion video footage and a series of experiments, the failure of the node happens within seconds,” the team adds, dramatically “often disastrously without warning.”
Also, the team says they’ll need more work that includes shoelace material. However, the situation does not look so good for the node we are most used to. Fortunately, it is possible to obtain a much better knot by making a very small change in the knot we know.
How to tie shoes correctly?
The team says they were inspired by a 2005 TED talk that showed it was a better knot to write their papers on.
“Apparently, there are strong and weak forms of this knot,” Terry Moore says in this TED talk, and “we have been taught its weak form.”
If, after tying the knot, the bows line up on the long part of your shoe, it means you’re using the weaker knot, Moore said. But if you run the initial string the other way around, the bows line up across the width of the shoe and we get the strong form of the knot: “And if you pull the strings under the knot, you’ll see that the bow is directed along the transverse axis of the shoe. This is a stronger knot. It will be resolved less often. It will disappoint you less and not only that, it looks better.”
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