<p>Mathematicians have found more than 177,000 distinct ways to knot a neck tie. A previous study by researchers from the University of Cambridge demonstrated a mathematical language describing tie knots which showed that only 85 different knots were possible.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Mathematician Mikael Vejdemo-Johansson of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, became interested in the subject after watching a YouTube tutorial which showed how to copy a knot worn by Matrix villain, The Merovingian.<br /><br />Vejdemo-Johansson looked up the Cambridge paper by Thomas Fink and Yong Mao and noticed that fancier knots were not included in the study published in the journal Nature in 1999.<br /><br />The pair had used an existing tool from logic - known as formal language theory - to express the basic rules of tying a neck tie as a series of symbols.<br /><br />This included things like the placement of the tie, the direction of the fold and the need to end in a final tuck.<br /><br />Fink and Mao had made two assumptions about tie knots that drastically reduced the number available.<br /><br />They assumed that people would only make a tuck – folding one end of the tie under the rest to complete the knot – at the end of a given tying sequence, and that all knots would be covered by a flat stretch of fabric.<br /><br />Those assumptions did not hold for the elaborate knots found in The Matrix, which can involve several tucks and many folds and edges.<br /><br />Vejdemo-Johansson and colleagues set about rewriting their language so it would include the more elaborate ties.<br /><br />The existing language described the process of tying a knot as a sequence of motions between the left, centre and right of the chest, moving the tie either away or towards the chest, 'New Scientist' reported.<br /><br />Vejdemo-Johansson's team realised they could just describe moves as windings either clockwise or anticlockwise around the passive end of the tie, plus a tuck move. This allowed them to include much more elaborate ties.<br /><br />They also changed an important rule: the limit to how many winding moves you can make before your tie gets embarrassingly short.<br /><br />Fink and Mao placed the limit at 8 for classical ties, but Vejdemo-Johansson's team chose 11 instead.<br /><br />Counting up all the possible windings and tucks before you hit this limit gave a total of 177,147 different tie knots, researchers said.</p>
<p>Mathematicians have found more than 177,000 distinct ways to knot a neck tie. A previous study by researchers from the University of Cambridge demonstrated a mathematical language describing tie knots which showed that only 85 different knots were possible.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Mathematician Mikael Vejdemo-Johansson of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, became interested in the subject after watching a YouTube tutorial which showed how to copy a knot worn by Matrix villain, The Merovingian.<br /><br />Vejdemo-Johansson looked up the Cambridge paper by Thomas Fink and Yong Mao and noticed that fancier knots were not included in the study published in the journal Nature in 1999.<br /><br />The pair had used an existing tool from logic - known as formal language theory - to express the basic rules of tying a neck tie as a series of symbols.<br /><br />This included things like the placement of the tie, the direction of the fold and the need to end in a final tuck.<br /><br />Fink and Mao had made two assumptions about tie knots that drastically reduced the number available.<br /><br />They assumed that people would only make a tuck – folding one end of the tie under the rest to complete the knot – at the end of a given tying sequence, and that all knots would be covered by a flat stretch of fabric.<br /><br />Those assumptions did not hold for the elaborate knots found in The Matrix, which can involve several tucks and many folds and edges.<br /><br />Vejdemo-Johansson and colleagues set about rewriting their language so it would include the more elaborate ties.<br /><br />The existing language described the process of tying a knot as a sequence of motions between the left, centre and right of the chest, moving the tie either away or towards the chest, 'New Scientist' reported.<br /><br />Vejdemo-Johansson's team realised they could just describe moves as windings either clockwise or anticlockwise around the passive end of the tie, plus a tuck move. This allowed them to include much more elaborate ties.<br /><br />They also changed an important rule: the limit to how many winding moves you can make before your tie gets embarrassingly short.<br /><br />Fink and Mao placed the limit at 8 for classical ties, but Vejdemo-Johansson's team chose 11 instead.<br /><br />Counting up all the possible windings and tucks before you hit this limit gave a total of 177,147 different tie knots, researchers said.</p>