Why tie shoelaces

Step 2 Make a loop with the lace on the right-hand side of the knot and hold it together with your thumb and forefinger. Step 3 Take the left shoelace and pass it around to the right, pulling it behind the loop until it encircles the loop entirely. This should leave a hole between the loop and the lace that has been pulled around it.

Step 4 Feed the left shoelace into the hole so that it also becomes a loop. Step 5 Pull both loops until the knot is firmly tied. Ready to buy some laced shoes? Here are some of our best-loved styles:. Practice on a table Practicing how to tie shoelaces whilst your child is wearing their shoes can be quite tricky, so you might find it easier to put the practice board on their lap or in front of them on a table. Make sure the laces are long enough Trying to tie laces that are too short can be quite frustrating!

Can your little one tie their shoes? So laces should be kept as short as possible to minimise their mass and hence the force tugging on the knot. Given that we usually get taught how to tie laces by our parents, so probably see the demonstration upside down and back-to-front, I wonder whether alternate generations of each family tie their laces incorrectly? To answer this question — or ask a new one — email lastword newscientist. Questions should be scientific enquiries about everyday phenomena, and both questions and answers should be concise.

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The most important thing for a runner is to be comfortable during the run. How feet react to high mileage varies per person. Whether your feet swell or frequently blister, finding a way to lace your shoes properly and securely can make or break your run. Search for: Search. I'm a scraper This search result is here to prevent scraping.

Does the way you lace your shoes change your running game? But with a combination of impact and forward motion, shoelaces loosen slightly with each step. You might not notice it for quite a while.

But then, the shoelaces reach the point where they're loose enough to start slipping. And then they untie fast, often within a couple of strides. O'Reilly and his team published their results in Proceedings of the Royal Society A , in a paper titled " The roles of impact and inertia in the failure of a shoelace knot. Seriously, though, they believe this research could have real implications for things like sutures and working with DNA. They also discovered that there's a right way and a wrong way to tie your shoes--at least if you want them to stay tied.