(1) But I swear that was a reef knot…

We’ve all gone through it. Some of us (the soldiers, sailors, the tinkers, the tailors) a lot. Learning to tie knots, that is. But if you were not the one who tied the knot in front of you, what strategy should you use to determine just how strong it is?

Neuroscience researchers at Johns Hopkins University recently published a study* testing participants on their ability to judge the strength of various knots. Their findings, that the average person fails miserably at this test, is food for thought.

“Studying areas where our physical intuition fails helps scientists better understand how our brains perceive the world around us. “Knots might be an interesting case study on constraints around our physical reasoning,” (researcher Sholei) Croom says. “Is it something to do with elasticity? Is it the fact that it’s a soft-body object rather than a rigid-body object?” Figuring out why tangles are so tricky could help scientists predict when people’s snap judgments about a physical situation are likely to be wrong, leading to unsafe reactions.”**

* Croom, S. and C. Firestone; Tangled Physics: Knots Strain Intuitive Physical Reasoning. Open Mind 2024; 8 1170–1190. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/opmi_a_00159

** Moskowitz, C. and J. Christiansen, “Which Knot is Stronger? Humans Aren’t Great Judges,” Scientific American (February 18, 2025): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/which-knot-is-stronger-humans-arent-great-judges/