Mathematicians have found as many as 177,147 distinct ways to knot a neck tie. A previous study by researchers from the University of Cambridge which showed that only 85 different knots were possible.
Mathematician Mikael Vejdemo-Johansson of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden , became interested in the subject after watching a You-Tube tutorial which showed how to copy a knot worn by Matrix film series villain, the Merovingian. Vejdemo-Johansson looked up the Cambridge paper by Thomas Fink and Yong Mao and noticed that fancier knots were not included in the study.
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. This included things like the placement of the tie, the direction of the fold and the need to end in a final tuck. Fink and Mao had made two assumptions about tie knots that reduced the number available. 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 and that all knots would be covered by a flat stretch of fabric.
Those assumptions did not hold for the tie in The Matrix , which can involve several tucks and many folds and edges. So the team then set about rewriting their language so it would include the more elaborate ties.
