I find it quite interesting to probe at the boundaries of the utility of knots in various materials, if anything to avoid overconfidence.
Another client of the
"material matters" product !
While, of course, this is true, it should not drive us to the wild side, where anything goes, there are no knots but only "knotted materials", there are no natural laws but only constructs of the human intellect, and we can not speak about anything - but we have to remain silent...There are many more things in knots that remain the same, that do not depend upon the specific circumstances and materials - and we can speak about knots, in general, because those things exist.
Having said that, I have to admit that if something is on the borders of the knotting world, this is a knot tied with/on this material. So, if you really wish to kill a knot tyer, to make him commit suicide, all you nedd is to present him a problem that should be solved with this material !
There was a thread where we tried to define what a rope and a knot is (1). I have to say that I, for one, have deliberately left knots tied on/with such materials outside the realm of definition - because I knew what strange animal is such an object... Imagine that the latex is replaced by a more elastic substance, and then by an even more elastic one...Where do we stop ? Will the objects constructed with the help of tangles made by this super-elastic tubular material bear any resemblance with a knot ? Are tangled elastic 2D toroidal membranes, following convoluted paths in 3D space, "knots"?
I have been able to get every other simpler knot I've tried to fail.
Why am I not surprised ?
You would have had more success with boiled spaghetti, I guess.
( I am too old to start learning new tricks, with this material. I have decided to limit my involvement in the few brief moments the nurse ties my arm with this thing, to find the vein...
1)
http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=3610.msg20611#msg20611