The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • Monthly Aphorism: Fundamental Principles of Rope

    Two fundamental Principles of Rope:

    1. You cannot push a rope.
    2. 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.