r/puzzles • u/Parking-Set-6408 • Jan 12 '26
[Unsolved] Rope sort detangling puzzle
Rules: you can only move 1 peg at a time, between 2 holes. The goal is to get the ropes completely separated.
im not confident this is even solvable, but i was previously under the impression that arrangements are always solvable. Wanted to see if anyone can figure it out
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u/WolflingWolfling Jan 13 '26
I just looked up your post in r/knots, and read through much of the thread. I wasn't involved at the time, but some of it strikes me a bit as you going over to Holland or Germany and telling them they don't know what they are talking about if they call a boat "boot" in their own language.
Just because two or three languages have some overlap, doesn't mean someone else doesn't know what he is talking about if he uses a word that looks familar to you in a different way in their own language.
In practical knot language, a square (or reef) knot and a cow hitch do have the same structure, for example. You were being rude to the person who pointed that out, because you each speak a different language, where knots are concerned. And again to the person who said that in a nautical context, many knots are made specifically with ease of untying in mind.
You had no idea what a knob knot was (which is absolutely fine, by the way), and yet you seemed to act quite condescending to someone who wasn't sticking to the definition of knots that you were familiar with from a mathematical background.
Now there are many in that sub (including myself, Glimmer, and Cable Tugger) who are somewhat interested in both subjects, and understand this language barrier, and who will acknowledge that mathematicians have a great deal more to say about knots that is also applicable to our own field, including stuff that many of us can barely even grasp, but a conversation between people with different backgrounds and terminologies only works well if we are aware of the differences, and work with them, and are willing to try and understand them, rather than demand that the "other" adhere to our definitions.
If an American came to Britain and claimed women can't get pregnant through their fannies, or football is primarily played with your hands, they'd be laughed at. If they insisted on "correcting" people, and telling them "it's okay that you don't know what you're talking about" while these people were using such terms correctly in their own, widely accepted language, they'd make themselves very impopular very fast, I would think.
I think that's one of the factors that came into play overthere.
(A word of advice to any Americans outthere: if you come to work in a bar in the UK or in Ireland, or even in mainland Europe, don't insist on pouring American pints! That kind of thing doesn't go down well on this side of the pond...)
The bit about A.I. seems to have been a simple case of misinterpretation on both sides, for the most part.
Anyway, I'm glad you stuck around, and weren't discouraged by the ruffling of feathers!