In this video, a strip of tape is peeled off of a surface (from left to right), forming a triangular tear. Video/ Pedro Reis, MIT Full news story. Frustrated by tape that won't peel off the roll in a straight line? Angry at wallpaper that refuses to tear neatly off the wall? A new study reveals why these efforts can be so aggravating. Wallpaper is not out to foil you--it's just obeying the laws of physics, according to a team of researchers from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris, the Universidad de Santiago, Chile, and MIT.