Excuse me! Your shoelaces are undone.

My shoelaces come undone a lot and people get concerned that I would fall down. Strangely I have never fallen down because of my untied shoelaces. So this got me thinking, can shoe laces really cause people to fall down and if so how have I escaped almost every day. I did a 2 minute exercise and had this observation. Since while walking you never lift or put down both of your feet at the same time the only way you can fall is when you step on your undone shoelace. Moreover to fall down you will need to step on the shoelace of your other foot. Now when you plant your foot on the ground your shoelaces naturally tend to get thrown forward because of momentum.  Assuming that the shoelaces are thrown straight up in the direction you are walking and stretch to their maximum length, to make you fall down your other foot will need to land on the shoelaces. This means that your foot should not go beyond the distance that your shoelaces extend to. In other words in order for you to fall down your shoelaces should be bigger than or at least equal to half the size of your footstep. Taking that into account it is impossible for me to fall down since I have long footsteps. People who have smaller footsteps and long shoelaces however still may fall down and small children especially. This is not to say that tall people may never fall down. For example in sports where you run a lot and change direction and size of footsteps suddenly, you are still prone to falling down, because of undone shoelaces. In normal walk or run however there are very less chances of that happening. So next time you buy shoes/ shoelaces make sure they extend less than half the size of your average footstep. ;) Enjoy!