cables nest of cables

doomey! | 07:46 Thu 06th Apr 2006 | Science

13 Answers

why do cables tangle themselves up? Even if I tie them up sopmehow they break free and tangle!

I have even tried "better quality" cables, with no joy!

Is there a cable tangle fairy? what explains this annoying series of events?

Thanks in Advance ...Doomey

e=mc2

A Hall Probe

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Loosehead

They are a little understood life form, in the same genus as the garden hose and their distant cousin the climbing rope. They give a still calm appearance when observed however when not being observed they have an uncanny ability to intercommunicate and tie themselves in knots, the longer they are left alone the more complex the knots become. When more than one exist they will tangle themselves together. Put a hose and an extension cables in the shed at opposite ends and leave for a couple of weeks and when you come back they will have found each other and got themselves intertwined. Scientists have thus far been unable to explain this phenomenon.

heathfield

"Perversity tends to exist thoughout the known universe", and it's busy, busy, busy!

stanleyman

As an electrician I managed at an early age to tread on my tangle fairy. They pray on the untidy, unprepared and short sighted. To avoid their attention, straighten all cables before use, use clips and conduit where possible and coil and secure surplus cable with cable ties. There is a product that coils around lose running cables keeping them all together. Even the fairies can't undo them.

Clanad

Since the existence of fairies is difficult to prove conclusively, I find a more rational explanation to be related to loosehead's observation that many inanimate objects are related. Just observe the results of leaving more than one empty clothes hangar in a closet... they multiply. So, my considered conclusion is that cables, garden hoses, clothes hangars and baling wire are all in the same genus and their desire is to multiply. I'm sure if you carefully counted the number of cables when you last saw them and compared the numbers to the next time you needed them, they will have reproduced. Left alone for a long period of time all of these supposedly inanimate objects increase exponentially... In my opinion...

rojash

In the winter, they like to huddle together for warmth. If you want to avoid tangles, you just need to knit little pullovers for all your cables.

mibn2cweus

Apparently no one here has heard of the electromagnetic effect. When current flows through a wire this produces a magnetic field. The attraction and repulsion of opposing and similar magnetic fields is what causes cables to rearrange their positions relative to each other. The Hidesinburg uncertainty principle which states that we can not simultaneously observe position and motion accounts for why this phenomenon is never actually observed in process.

doomey!

Question Author

Nah I Prefer the Genus answer's.

It is the only rational explantion.

mycatis

This is my favourite thread this MONTH (at least) lmao!

Loosehead

Is that similar to the heisenburg Uncertainty principle mibn2 ?

heathfield

He's not sure !

aka pixi

awww doomey dont blame the cable tangle fairy, us little people get blamed for everything :(