We show that, given a k-tangle τ in a graph G, there always exists a weight function w: V (G) → N such that a separation (A,B) of G of order <k lies in τ if and only if w(A) <w(B), where w(U):= ∑u∈U w(u) for U ⊆ V (G). We show that the same result holds also for tangles of hypergraphs as well as for edge-tangles of graphs, but not for edge-tangles of hypergraphs.