Tie a trefoil knot in a piece of string, seal the ends together, and try to wiggle it free without cutting. In ...

Color-changing fibers are helping scientists to understand, for the first time, the exact ways some knots hold tighter than others. In 2018, researchers developed pressure-sensitive fibers in part to ...

MIT researchers develop a mathematical model to predict a knot’s stability with the help of color-changing fibers. Photo by Joseph Sandt Knots are some of the oldest and most-used technologies that ...

Mathematicians say knots cannot exist in four-dimensional space because the extra dimension allows a rope to move around itself and untangle, revealing surprising insights into geometry and topology.

Editor's Note: This article was provided by Inside Science. The original is here. (Inside Science) – Knots are everywhere, from laces of shoes to stitches that seal cuts. Sailors and others have known ...

Mathematicians have studied knots for centuries, but a new material is showing why some knots are better than others. One sunny day last summer, Mathias Kolle, a professor at the Massachusetts ...

Consider the plight of a gardener struggling with a recalcitrant tangle of garden hose. Sometimes, no amount of pulling or twisting unsnarls the coils. At other times, the tangles readily come apart, ...

What’s slice? It’s the umbrella term for two properties that this kind of mathematical knot can have. And a mathematical knot is a whole major field of study unto itself, inspired by regular knots ...

You may not have heard of knot theory. But take it from Bill Menasco, a knot theorist of 35 years: This field of mathematics, rich in aesthetic beauty and intellectual challenges, has come a long way ...