85 Ways to Tie a Necktie At Cambridge University in England, gentlemen are still required to wear neckties in the dining halls. The question was asked, and answered, by Thomas Fink and Yong Mao, who are mathematical physicists holding research fellowships at the University's prestigious Cavendish Laboratories. Their answer was interesting enough to earn publication in Nature , one of the world's top science journals.
Most men know of two necktie knots.
There is also a simpler version of the Windsor, called the half-Windsor. A fourth knot, called the Pratt knot, was discovered in 1989. Fink and Mao's analysis of necktie knots is actually a good example of how mathematicians attack real-world problems in an organized, abstract way. First, a necktie has two ends, but only the wide end is moved in tying the knot. Fink and Mao call this the active end .