I know this sounds like a stupid question, but it genuinely frustrates me and I'd like to know if there is a logical explanation for it. You can spend a good deal of time carefully and neatly rolling up a cable and then have it sitting there for a month where no-one has touched or disturbed it in any way, and yet when you go to use the cable, you find it tangled and knotted. WHY???
2006-06-12 17:08:22 · 6 answers · asked by CumQuaT 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
I know this sounds like a stupid question, but it genuinely frustrates me and I'd like to know if there is a logical explanation for it. You can spend a good deal of time carefully and neatly rolling up a cable and then have it sitting there for a month where no-one has touched or disturbed it in any way, and yet when you go to use the cable, you find it tangled and knotted. WHY???
I AM serious, by the way. So please, no answers about trolls or gremlins or cable faries.
2006-06-12 17:16:45 · update #1
This could very well be an application of chaos theory (the predictability of random events). Although as the cables generally find themselves getting messed up, I think this is better described as an application of Murphy's Law.
Murphy's Law, stated mathematically, is "1 plus 1 hardly ever equals 2", or in simpler terms, "If anything can screw up, it will screw up". This law affects everything from household cables to the antennae of interplanetary probes (as the Galileo team found out when the probe's hi-gain antenna refused to deploy after launch, despite careful design and planning).
2006-06-12 20:49:22 · answer #1 · answered by Toutatis 4 · 5⤊ 2⤋
It's not becuase other people are touching it or anything it's because of the way we un roll the cable...like some people (like me) just pull it which causes it to tangle up but if we backtrack the way we rolled it up then it wouldnt be tangled.
it may look like it is but it isnt...i think
2006-06-12 17:21:50 · answer #2 · answered by unhappy_not_sad 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Either it's chaos theory, so small twists in the cables magnify to tangle everything up, or it's the same guy who steals socks.
2006-06-12 17:56:32 · answer #3 · answered by Amarkov 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The gremlins, you see, they sneak into boxes and tangle things up because they love to see humans throw things and get mad and say, "BUT I ROLLED THEM UP SO CAREFULLY!!!!!" because it brings them such joy to know they are the cause of stress and strife.
2006-06-12 17:13:52 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Its the trolls that steal your socks.
2006-06-12 17:12:57 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
its the mice.
2006-06-12 17:12:37 · answer #6 · answered by dazie528 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋