That seems likely, though it does still seem like their results might fall into the "things behave differently at micro-scale and macro-scale" category. Normall

That seems likely, though it does still seem like their results might fall into the "things behave differently at micro-scale and macro-scale" category. Normally we'd expect the (macro) knots we're familiar with to weaken -not strengthen - the cord or rope they're tied in (how much varies quite a bit with which knot we're talking about, but I don't know of any that don't have at least some negative impact). The little video almost implies the effect is similar to stretch, that the tangled version can't tighten up (with friction presumably absorbing some energy) like the knotted one does.