Is Santa Real? (A Scientific Analysis)
and other Christmas mysteries answered with science! Subscribe to It's Okay To Be Smart: http://bit.ly/iotbs_sub ↓ More info and sources below ↓ Follow on ...
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[MUSIC] Thomas Edison introduced Christmas lights to the world in 1880. It was a vast improvement over the dangerous tradition of putting actual flaming candles in a very dry tree, but in doing so he also invented a new kind of headache. How… how did this happen. I was so careful last year… [MUSIC] Scientists have spent a lot of time thinking about how things get tangled. Turns out it’s just the rules of the universe. In 2007, physicists showed for any cord longer than about 2 meters, knots aren’t rare, they’re almost guaranteed to happen. The math is a little complex, but think of it as the most frustrating example of entropy you’ve ever encountered: there’s always only one way for a string of lights to be untangled, but with a few turns, there’s billions, or trillions...
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[MUSIC] Thomas Edison introduced Christmas lights to the world in 1880. It was a vast improvement over the dangerous tradition of putting actual flaming candles in a very dry tree, but in doing so he also invented a new kind of headache. How… how did this happen. I was so careful last year… [MUSIC] Scientists have spent a lot of time thinking about how things get tangled. Turns out it’s just the rules of the universe. In 2007, physicists showed for any cord longer than about 2 meters, knots aren’t rare, they’re almost guaranteed to happen. The math is a little complex, but think of it as the most frustrating example of entropy you’ve ever encountered: there’s always only one way for a string of lights to be untangled, but with a few turns, there’s billions, or trillions...
