How To Untangle a Slinky

Never let a kid swing a slinky around randomly.  It will quickly get tangled.  The number of seconds until tangling is roughly equal to (age of child * 5).

If you get a hold of the tangled Slinky soon enough, there is a chance you can untangle it.

Ok there is no simple way to untangle a Slinky, and you are likely to never get it back to how it was before, but there is one technique that seems to help.  At the places where the Slinky is wrapped upon itself, stretch it out rather widely (without twisting).  This stretching will help expose the topological issues that have developed in the Slinky.  The remediative techniques generaly involve passing the Slinky back through itself.  If you find yourself sliding the Slinky along itself, or twisting the Slinky, that is unlikely to help.