Audoly's theory proved successful up to a point, being able to predict the correct force for overhand knots with either one or two twists. (sciencemag.org)
But the topology of such a knot can be varied easily by simply repeating the over-under weaving to create overhand knots in which the lace ends twist around each other two or more times. (sciencemag.org)
Physicist Basile Audoly of the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris set to change that in 2008 when he developed a theory to predict the force needed to tighten very simple overhand knots. (sciencemag.org)