How come tied shoelaces love to untie, but clumsily packed away wires love to knot themselves?

Question

How come tied shoelaces love to untie, but clumsily packed away wires love to knot themselves?

In: Other

Answer 1

Well, both of these clearly follow [Sod’s Law](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sod%27s_law), so it is inevitable.

Another explanation could be likened to [entropy](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy) – there are single states where they are perfectly ordered and to your liking (tied laces, straight cable), but many, many more states where they are sub-optimal. Over time and with some energy input, they are more likely to be found in a disordered state.