Imagine you have a piece of rope, approximately two metres long, with a diameter of approximately 11mm. Create two bunny ears in the rope, cross them over, make the bunnies run round the tree, watch the bunny jump in the hole, pull tight and voila – you’ve created your first knot. Add a few more, such as a bowline, figure eight and square knot and eventually you’ll be left with a tangled mess that is, scientifically speaking, significantly weaker than the original piece of rope. You’ve twisted and contorted the rope to such extreme proportions the tensile strength has been…