What is Paracord?

If you have seen people wearing a bracelet made out of some kind of rope like cord. They are wearing a paracord survival braclet. A paracord survival bracelet is made out of 550 military spec parachute corddage. it is called 550 because it will take a excess of more than 550 pounds to break it. It gets its strength from 7 inner strands of cordage which has a breaking load of 50 pounds each and the outer layer has a breaking load of 220 pounds. 550 paracord was originally used  for suspension lines in US parachutes during World War II by paratroopers. Once in the field the parachutes found this cordage very useful in many tasks such as shoelaces, turniques, taking the inner strands out and using them as fishing line, etc. Today 550 paracord is generally used as a utility cord by both the US military and civilians. Here is a little fun fact 550 cord is so verstaile that even NASA uses it. Yes NASA, astronauts during the second space shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope used 550 cord to help repair it in some way. Other than being used by NASA and the US military it is widely used by hunters, campers, hikers, etc.