Which Knot Is Stronger? Humans Aren’t Great Judges

Humans are pretty good at guessing whether a towering stack of dishes in the sink will topple over or where a pool ball will go when a cue hits it. We evolved this kind of physical reasoning to navigate our changing and sometimes dangerous environments. But a new study highlights one area of intuitive physics that’s deceptively difficult: judging how strong a knot is.

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If you’re surprised, you’re in good company. Researchers recently asked volunteers to look at photographs of these knots and decide which would take more force to undo. The participants consistently misjudged the strength of the ties by wide margins, Johns Hopkins University brain science researchers Chaz Firestone and Sholei Croom report in the journal Open Mind.

Read the whole story (subscription may be required): Scientific American