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It's funny. Laugh. Science

Mathematics Unravels Optimum Way To Lace Shoes 49

Posted by timothy from the is-with-velcro dept.
Seft writes "The knotty problem of choosing the optimum way of lacing up shoes has been solved by a new mathematical proof. There are many millions of different possibilities but, reassuringly, the proof shows that centuries of human trial and error has already selected out the strongest lacing patterns. However, the pattern using the least amount of lace possible, the decorative "bowtie" lacing, is usually only seen in shoe shop displays"
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Mathematics Unravels Optimum Way To Lace Shoes More

Mathematics Unravels Optimum Way To Lace Shoes

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  • Strength is Not Enough (Score:5, Interesting)

    by 4of12 ( 97621 ) on Wednesday December 04, 2002 @04:27PM (#4812898) Homepage Journal

    I dunno about you, but I like comfort in my lacing system.

    If you have the highly zig-zaged pattern you can, with little force, end up applying an tourniquet to your foot.

    Less sharp angles will keep your foot more comfortable, not to mention giving you more lace with which to hang yourself - I mean, tie knots. Too many shoes come with short laces that can barely support a full bow.

    • Too many shoes come with short laces that can barely support a full bow.
      Hm, do you have large feet? My shoes seem to come with laces that are too long. I need to make sure the knot is very even, or I'll tend to step on whatever part is longer. I take a men's 8.5 or 9, and have suspected that they use the same length laces regardless of size.

      • My shoes seem to come with laces that are too long.

        Try tucking the long loops under the loose cross lacing near the front of your shoes.

        [I can't believe I've regressed to starting a Shoe Tying FAQ...]

  • Screw shortest.. (Score:4, Funny)

    by sporty ( 27564 ) on Wednesday December 04, 2002 @04:35PM (#4813006) Homepage
    Screw shortest.. i want a way to use my laces that are too long for the shoes i have without buying new ones. Cutting them will only give me frayed eneds.

    -s
    • If the laces are an artificial fiber, a match can be used to melt the ends. If the laces are cotton, they won't melt, but you can use methylcyanoacrylate.
    • If they are nylon laces, if you are careful after you cut them apply a controlled flame to the ends after tying the "frays" together. Don't actually light it just melt the tips a bit. It'll make a diy cap kinda like the ones that used to be on there. Follow these instructions at your own risk, not responsible for ruined shoelaces, inhaled fumes, etc.
    • I've always double-, triple- and quadruple-knotted too-long shoelaces.

      Another thing you can do: tie a regular bow-knot. Leave the ends long. Then tie those long ends into another bow-knot.

      What's that you say? It looks silly? Yikes! What will the boys at my Mensa mixer think?? Better change back into the Armani.
    • Oh, I'm afraid not! *ba dump bump* ...
      Get it afraid not ~= a frayed knot. ...
      it's funny, come on.

  • What about single side lacing? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Soul-Burn666 ( 574119 ) on Wednesday December 04, 2002 @04:45PM (#4813157) Journal
    Where I live, in the army, you lace by first knotting one side of the lace to the first eyehole and then make an above connection to the eyehole on the other side (from outside), then you go up one eyehole, and then go again to the other side... eventually leaving you with only one side of the lace to tie somewhere... After it's done, you see only horizantal laces, all the vertical ones are below. That way it is easier to cut the laces if you get injured.

    Also, needing only to use one lace makes lacing up and down faster, tho you need to get used to the fact that for each level of eyehole you need to lace in the opposite direction.

    Something like this:

    *-o
    o-o
    o-o
    o-o
    o-o
    /

    Where * is the knotted side and / is the leftover, coming from under the eyehole.

    • Re:What about single side lacing? (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      In Soviet army, boots lace YOU!!
    • Quotes from the article:
      The most widely used "criss-cross" and "straight" lacing patterns were identified as the strongest. But criss-cross came out on top for a short, wide set of eyeholes - that is, when the vertical distance between eyeholes is low, and horizontal distance is high. Straight lacing came out tops for a long, skinny set of eyeholes....


      Furthermore, most people, including Polster, opt for criss-cross lacing not because it is stronger, but because it is easy and you do not end up with uneven ends - a big risk with straight lacing. Straight lacing is sometimes used in the army because, if the foot is injured, you can cut the lace with one swipe.
    • This is typical army shithead technique.

      I used to be in the army cadets here in the UK and they used to make you do your boots like this - especially when you showed them there was a better way.

      The problem is that you ONLY have one end of the lace to tie off. This is clearly a PROBLEM because it is HARD .
      Now. How about a way of lacing shoes where you only have one crossing of the lace between each pair of holes, but you can still tie in a bow, like 99% of human shoe users do?

      Pay attention. Here comes the science bit...

      5a 5b
      4a 4b
      3a 3b
      2a 2b
      1a 1b

      Start with the lace threaded halfway through 1a and 1b from the outside in. Now do this...
      1a, 2a, 3b, 4b, 4a...
      1b, 3b, 3a, 5a, 5b...
      Sometimes at the top you need to frig it just a little.
      • You circle with the leftover around your leg (NOT THE SHOE!) and then you put it under the rubber bands that close the lower part of the pants.

        Also, you can turn the sock on it to make it really strong.
      • >Now. How about a way of lacing shoes where you only have one crossing of the lace between each pair of holes, but you can still tie in a bow, like 99% of human shoe users do?
        So who are these non-human shoe users, and what do they do with their laces? Or do they have to use a different lacing algorithm because they have three columns of holes instead of two like us humans?

  • Hiking up & down mountains (Score:3, Informative)

    by bbonnn ( 519410 ) on Wednesday December 04, 2002 @04:49PM (#4813189)
    Of course, this study doesn't take into account terrain. Really hard-core backpackers lace their shoes differently depending on whether they're ascending or descending a mountain.

  • This proof is completely BIASED... (Score:3, Funny)

    by tswinzig ( 210999 ) on Wednesday December 04, 2002 @05:02PM (#4813332) Journal
    ...towards people with feet!
  • This is further proof that mathematicians live in that interesting other-world where shoes are laced in a perfect plane, eyelets are precisely aligned and friction does not exist. The rest of us live in reality.
    • I found that some of this stuff applies real well to reality. After a term of hard work in a topology class, the most important and practical thing I have learned is that it is impossible to tie shoe laces in four dimensions. Thanks to the work of generations of mathematicians, we know not to use shoe laces if another dimension were ever discovered. If it were not for mathematicians, how else would you be prepared for hiking in the fourth dimension?
    • Math lives in that world too.

      They just generally don't tell everyone. I have no idea why, as it's nice knowing that stuff.

      I mean, really, if you had only taken a graduate level classical mechanics course you might have done the realistic version of this problem already.

  • A new mathematical proof... (Score:5, Funny)

    by duras ( 34902 ) on Wednesday December 04, 2002 @11:21PM (#4815991) Homepage
    Not for the faint of heart... it uses string theory.
  • I'm disappointed. I was really hoping that this was a proof of how best to tie one's shoes. My shoelaces are always coming untied. I'm beginning to think that I never learned the proper way to tie shoes.

    I blame my mother.
    • The reason your shoes always come untied might be the same reason mine always did...you purchased, unknowingly, a pair of shoes with round shoelaces, which is the dumbest fucking idea in the history of the universe.

      Round and flat shoelaces stay in place entirely different ways. I gather the theory on round laces is that the tension of the rest of the laces (You know, the stuff in the shoe.) is supposed to hold the knot in place. You have to pull them taunt and the inside of the knot is supposed 'scrunch' tight, but us normal shoe wearers do not pull our laces tight when tying shoes, because it's too tight. (duh)

      Whereas flat shoe laces stay in place because of the knot. You can tie flat shoelaces in a knot in midair, and they will stay. Round shoelaces will not. Most people, when they were kids, tied their shoelaces where the bow wasn't anywhere near tight, often flapping around a good quarter inch from the shoe. As adults, we usually get it tighter than that, but not as tight as it needs to be for round shoelaces.

      Check your shoelaces. If they are round, go to a shoe store, spend five dollars, and purchase a flat-the-way-god-intended pair of shoelaces. Don't listen to people try to tell you that round shoelaces look 'correct' on nice shoes...when was the last time you noticed someone's shoelaces? Just get the right color and no one can tell.

      Seriously, I'm not kidding about this. I used to wonder why I couldn't keep my dress shoes tied, and all the others worked fine, and then one day I looked at the laces and said 'what the hell?'. The problem is usually worsened because it's the fancy shoes that have round laces, the very ones that are unconfortable to pull tight, while sneakers, which people wear pretty snug, have flat laces.

  • From the article:
    "Even if God wears shoes with 100 eyelets..."

    God wears shoes? What kind of marketing propaganda is Nike into now??

    ;-)
  • Both sets of calculations, which ran to over 30 pages, were based on an idealised shoe. For example, the eyelets are perfectly aligned, and the shoe exists only in one plane. The proofs also ignore certain physical properties, such as the friction exerted by the lace on the eyehole.

    First, postulate a spherical foot ...

  • Think of it this way, there are billions of people on this planet, many, many shoe types and an almost infinite number of possible situatuions related the footwear, It would be difficult, if not impossible, to model every scenario accuratly. These scientist aren't in another world, they're just idealising the situation to make it possible for them to do the math.

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