- Whatever problem you face, science has the answer.
The holiday season is over and it’s time to put away your Christmas lights. No, trust us, it’s time, just do it.
“But it’s so annoying. The lights always get tangled in the box and it takes half a box to untangle them,” you say. “It’s so much easier to just leave them up.”
We hear you and understand the pain. You just have to wonder — why do the lights tangle up and how could you prevent it?
Well, scientists have used their sciences to figure out what exactly happens with your strips of Christmas lights. And it’s not a new discovery, either — the study was published already in 2007.
So why isn’t this common knowledge by now, considering it came out 15 years ago? Who knows, but we’re here to spill the beans for you.
Just as soon as we move into an underground bunker to hide from the choppers of Big Christmas Light.
Thousands of Tangles
Right, our bunker is secure and we have air conditioning. Let’s dive into this study.
The research was carried out by two physicists from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), Dorian Raymer and Douglas Smith. And they didn’t half-ass their research.
To study the tangling phenomenon, they placed strings of various lengths into a box. They then proceeded to violently shake the box to toss the strings around.
Raymer and Smith repeated this process a total of 3,400 times. Let no one say they didn’t go all the way.
“It didn’t take very long for the knots to form — maybe about 10 seconds. We were surprised by that,” Smith told Live Science.
“We immediately started seeing these complicated knots begin to form. It was all very rapid.”
The knots and tangles formed quickly, but they were far from uniform. During the experiment, Raymer and Smith observed more than 120 different kinds of knots.
Essentially, they were able to witness every kind of mess your Christmas lights could get into.
The Ends Justify the Tangles
Raymer’s and Smith’s experiments also revealed why the strings got tangled. Unsurprisingly, length was a big contributor.
Basically, the longer the string, the more likely it was to tangle. At some point, the likelihood of tangling reached 100%.
Another factor was the material the string was made out of. The stiffer the string, the less likely it was to tangle. Makes sense.
But the biggest contributor of all was loose ends. If the string was untied, it was practically bound to tangle.
“The ends are really what get a knot to form. Sailors probably know it best that you have to control what the ends are doing to avoid knots,” explained Raymer, who today works as a consulting systems engineer.
But this experiment was carried out using smooth strings. Do the actual lights on Christmas lights have an effect on tangling?
Great question. Yes, they make the string much more likely to tangle.
“I think personally, from my own experience using Christmas lights, it’s more of the nubs of lights that stick out of the side of the cord that create a lot of friction and get caught on each other. It’s even worse than a regular piece of string,” said Smith.
Keep Your Lights from Tangling
Using the results of Raymer’s and Smith’s research, we can then deduce the most optimal way to store Christmas lights. Since long strings are more likely to tangle, it might be smart to buy shorter lengths of Christmas lights and hook them together than using one loooooooooong string.
The light nubs contribute to tangling, so smooth LED strips can keep free(er) of tangles. Just make sure they’re safe for outside use.
Another popular trick is to wrap the lights around a piece of cardboard. This way the string can’t move around as much and form tangles.
And finally, you should get rid of those loose ends.
“Make sure to tape down the ends of the lights onto the cardboard. This way, you immobilize them, and they won’t be loose and flap around,” instructed Raymer.
“Or have someone else hang them up for you,” added Smith.
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