Many technicians never tie knots in their wires and they should. Most young techs today have never heard of this, and that is why they do not add knots in the wires. Lightning cannot handle 90 degrees angle in any kind of metallic pathway. More times than not if there is no way that the potential of lightning can find a bi-pass, the wire will explode. That said, surge suppression can be that potential that creates that bi-pass. However, if you are that kind of company that chooses not to use surge suppression than every tech should adopt this practice of tying knots in the wires. Here are the reasons why. ....

[Link: linkedin.com]

I'm way skeptical

Huh!?!
What!?!
Lighting can't handle 90 deg!?!

Is this one of those "Digital is Digital, it either works or it doesn't" or "All Amps sound the same" kinda thing?

Julie this was something that was popular in the 60s-70s. I remember my dad, after repairing a TV, would make sure their was a good knot in the power cord just inside the TV.

But those days were back when Vacuum tubes and large solid state was the norm. And those operated at MUCH higher voltages than the micro PCs we have in every device today. Back then, equipment was not bothered by surges of a few hundred volts and tying knots in the power cable would help attenuate the spikes of thousands of volts.
By the way, yes lighting like to travel in a straight line; but the knot trying was to do with the inductance it caused. Not so much as to scare the lighting from making a loop-to-loop.

Anyway, today's electronics are very sensitive. And trying a knot in the cable (although effective at reducing a bit of incoming surge) doesn't do much to protect anything anymore.

When grounding TV antennas the manufacturers say to run the ground wire without installing any sharp bends or 90 degree turns because lightning would not be able to follow the ground wire to the ground.

And just when the Mythbusters retire, this perfect gem of a myth to bust or confirm pops up... they could've made a trip out to that lightening generator facility again!

If you tie knots in your low voltage cable you are a contractor who was too cheap to hire a low voltage company.

I don't know about knots -- I just kink the wire.

Slot cars are powered by electricity. Ever try to take a hairpin at full speed? Car goes straight. Might be something to this after all. :)

One myth that I wish they had done. Was to purchase three brand new beds of the same size and model. Each of them would've taken one home and slept on it for 10 years. While the 3rd was the control and just left in storage.

Wanted to know if there was a difference in weight. If so, by how much of a difference.

KOT

I can tell you that when I serviced invisible fences, most breaks that were caused by lightning happened where there was a splice with a wire nut. The wire nut would be blown up and the wire disintegrated at the splice.

I can certainly see that, wrapping the wire within a wire nut (or a crimp connector) will create a spark gap where the juice will jump the open air.
But I can not buy into the 90 deg. thing, there are a lot of 90 deg turns in our world:
Right Angle power plugs.
Bus bars on circuit boards.
Romex going into an outlet device.
Etc....

The only way that I can see any validity to this (IMO), is to look at it from a volume/flow perspective where the knot becomes (basically) a fuse, too much volume will blow the fuse. The 90 deg thing just does not work for me but, I have been wrong before (just ask my wife).

Get the facts: Warning: Warning: Time suck void ahead.

[Link: polyphaser.com]

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NEC Section 810.21 states :

E. Run in Straight Line
• The grounding conductor for an antenna mast or antenna discharge unit shall be run in as straight a line as practicable from the mast or discharge unit to the grounding electrode.

The concern is if the ground wire has sharp bends in it or 90 degree turns then at that point the lightning may jump from the ground wire to another nearby object thus defeating the purpose of the ground wire.

[Link: joneseducation.com]

A lightning cloud holds a potential 100 million volts and a strike can contain a large percentage of that at 50,000 amperes.

Who knew a knot in your cable could stop that kind of energy from damage!