Like…both ends being fixed in place surely helps, but how does the rest keep from tying into knots?
In: Biology
Fun fact, [they actually CAN get tangled up like earbuds!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvulus) It’s not a common condition by any means, but it’s possible; the reason it’s not common is that your body actually has an organ called the [mesentery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesentery) that’s attached to the back of your abdominal wall, and a big part of what it does is exactly that, keeping your guts from tangling up around themselves.
Imagine your wired earbuds are so tightly packed together that the wires can’t move. Like when they come with a cable tie.Therefore they can’t tangle.
Your intestines are packed in around other organs/musculature/fat etc. they’re not sliding around in loads of spare space.
The intestines can move around a lot but they are held generally in place by the mesentery tissue https://www.healthline.com/health/mesentery
Take your wired earbuds and glue the wire to one edge of a long strip of cloth about 6 inches wide. Now fold them up in your pocket, Do you see how that cloth keeps the wire from tangling?
Mesentary tissue. Think of your intestines stretched out like a curtain rod. The mesentary tissue is like a curtain hanging from that rod, but it is firmly attached to the rod. It cannot slide back and forth like a real curtain. Now the mesentary “curtain” is also anchored to the floor, or in your body, it’s attached to the back of your abdominal wall.
Now your intestines can move around quite a bit, so let’s make our curtain rod really flexible. If you take it down from the wall, bunch it up on the floor and let the mesentary curtain get all scrunched up, I think you’ll see that although the curtain rod intestine wouldn’t be able to tie itself into knots very easily with the mesentary curtain still attached to it, and the curtain itself is attached to your abdominal wall.
The intestines can still get tangled up in real life, but it is pretty rare.
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