1 yr. ago • 92%

These things are always the biggest pain in the ass to untangle

33 comments

the biggest pain in the ass

....that's because they're not meant for that, despite looking... uh ...similar.

Joke aside, that mess sure does look annoying, and it is probably also not easy to replace parts if one of those lines snap or get twisted too much.

62
- Fishing line... It's just fishing line...
  
  24
  
  Yeah, but getting it balanced right would be a challenge.
  
  8
But why are they getting tangled often enough for people to form opinions on how hard they are to untangle?

57
- Because they hang on strings and strings tend to get tangled.
  
  -23
  
  Are you putting it in a closed space? Strings only tangle themselves when they are not being observed.
  
  45
God damn. How hard are you swinging the Newton's cradle for this to happen?

51
- Seriously what are people doing with these things that this entire thread seems to think this is typical? It never even occured to me that these could get tangled and I loved playing with them as a child.
  
  24
  
  Only way I can think of is transportation, falling off a table or just not knowing it's purpose.
  
  13
  
  because kids are dumb af
  
  1
How'd you get your balls in a twist?

31
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testicular_torsion
  
  13
  
  Oh fuck that's cruel.
  
  1
Yeah.

Use a toothpick to open up the loops in the knots. Focus on one of the outermost strings and move the ball through the loops until it's clear. Then you only have four tangled strings and so on.

28
Lost one because the cables broke after too much tangling. These things are not good for kids.

12
This is a worse sight than a guy suffering from testicular torsion.

8
- It's the same sight
  
  3
#firstworldproblems! :-)

7
Is that a newton's cradle? How did it get tangled?

4
- Had mine happen while I put it in a box to move desks. Was a pain to untangle
  
  4
- Moving, clumsy user, children, or cats.
  
  1
You're just better off buying a new one

4
When I was a kid I was obsessed with the story of the gordian knot and Alexander's wacky solution to it. I decided for some strange reason to train myself to untangle knots and to this day I'm still pretty good at it.

Seeing this reminded me of finding the two Newton's cradles that I own that had survived my most recent move that were all very tangled and spending a good 5 minutes untangling them and cursing this weird drive I have to untangle knots.

4
- I was thinking about the Gordian knot the other day. Isn't it a lame solution, like cheating your way through? I dunno, I never liked that part.
  
  What is your opinion, as a selfclaimed obsessed over it?
  
  5
  
  I think Alexander got what was coming to him. He cut through a complicated problem and ruined one of the mysteries of the world in the process.
  
  Then he took over much of the world then he mysteriously fell ill and died after 12 days of suffering.
  
  My fan theory is that he could have unraveled the gordian knot in 12 days and would have become a true emperor of the world if he had had the patience to give it an honest try.
  
  5
I was just thinking about these the other day. When I was a child my big sister had one, I loved it but I swear I only had to touch it for it to mysteriously tangle up.

3

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