Eli5: I tie both of my shoe laces with the same technique and strength. Why does only one always get untied?
In: Engineering
Left and right handed knots – basically you tie one with the two parts of the knot going in different directions, and this will shake tight The other one is tied so that it will shake loose
https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/grannyknot.htm has the details of this.
My best bet – the shoelace knot is supposed to be a form of the reef knot – ‘left over right, right over left’. When tied wrong, with both half knots tied the same way, it is called a granny knot. The granny knot doesn’t lock, and slips.
It is possible that your technique is getting one of the half knots backward. And it is easy to see – when tied properly, the laces lie across the shoe, when tied wrong, the laces try to lie along the shoe.
If someone is tying both shoes in a granny knot, the solution is easy – you tie the ‘base knot’ the other way, then when you tie the finishing knot the same as always, the knot works out correct. But if you are tying both shoes differently, it isn’t quite so easy to fix.
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