Two fundamental Principles of Rope:
- You cannot push a rope.
- If a tangle of rope has one end, it must have at least one other.
The First Principle should be obvious, but all too often I find myself trying to thread a wire through a structure… and eventually realize I’m attempting something that’s isomorphic to pushing a rope. Doesn’t work, never has, never will.
The Second Principle comes in handy with hoses and cables. If you separate the tangle into two parts, any part without an end is topologically either a knot or a loop, but won’t contribute much to the untangling. Conversely, any part with an end can be reduced to a straight section (possibly leading to a tangle in the other part) by fiddling around for a while.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
Comments
2 responses to “Monthly Aphorism: Fundamental Principles of Rope”
I was working on a community theatre project once, where one task involved threading a rope through this huge piece of cloth that would cover the entire back of the stage. The director was attempting to do it via the “push rope” strategy, inch by complaining inch. He saw me walk by and gave me the job. I yanked out his last hour’s work instantly, tied the rope to a broomstick, got the end of the broomstick into the threading pocket, and threw it, javelin style. The broomstick flew 60 feet or so inside the cloth, dragging the rope with it. I then squeezed the stick the rest of the way in a couple of minutes and was done. The director was agog.
Well played!
He could tell you were one of those engineering types, right away, just by inspection.
Probably has you work with things involving essence of electricity, too…