Potential energy of a shoelace

[Rothiemurchus]

How much potential energy is stored in a tied shoelace?

 

[Danger]

What's it made of? How tightly is it tied? What sort of substrate is it tied into, specifically with regard to modulus of elasticity in the area of the eglets? Getting the idea?

 

[christianjb]

You can work this one out by measuring the work done it takes to undo the knot.

Anyone any ideas for doing this experiment? I suppose you could do it with a force-gauge.

 

[lpfr]

You can work this one out by measuring the work done it takes to undo the knot.

No. the two works are unrelated.

 

[christianjb]

No. the two works are unrelated.

How so?

I guess that it's nowhere near a conservative force field, so most of the work is done against friction, which ends up heating the shoe-lace.

 

[lpfr]

How so?

I guess that it's nowhere near a conservative force field, so most of the work is done against friction, which ends up heating the shoe-lace.

You have answered yourself.

Have you ever heard about a "gordian knot"? Some real life knots are almost gordian. They ask for very much work to untie than to tie.

 

[mr200backstrok]

are you including energy stored as mass?

 

[lpfr]

I don't know whe you are asking. Anyway, not me!

 

[russ_watters]

We're done here.