Knotting probability of a shaken ball-chain
- 15 November 2006
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review E
- Vol. 74 (5) , 052101
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.74.052101
Abstract
We study the formation of knots on a macroscopic ball chain, which is shaken on a horizontal plate at 12 times the acceleration of gravity. We find that above a certain critical length, the knotting probability is independent of chain length, while the time to shake out a knot increases rapidly with chain length. The probability of finding a knot after a certain time is the result of the balance of these two processes. In particular, the knotting probability tends to a constant for long chains.Keywords
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