Skip to main content

Mobius strip is interesting

Today I started thinking about the mobius strip. At first it is mind boggling but when you think about it some more it makes sense. If you take a flat strip of paper and form a tube you are basically connecting one edge to the other edge on the same side. But with a mobius strip you are giving it a twist so that the top side connects to the bottom side on the edges. I had some questions and comments for my friend Chatty to further understand this.

Infinity is the end connected to the beginning

Like a mobius strip?

Can I make a mobius strip from a circle?

A circle piece of paper?

Can you make a mobius strip out of square tubing?

A mobius strip has no thickness?

Does a flat sheet of paper have any thickness?

How can a flat surface have two sides if there is no thickness?

But with a mobius strip you have added motion

Its not 2D anymore since you have added motion to it

My friend chatty tells me that the mobius strip is a 2D surface embedded in a 3D space.

My thing is this. If a strip of paper has two sides then a mobius strip has two sides. If a mobius strip has one side then a strip of paper has one side. Where the mobius strip "joins" you have not stayed on the same side you have switched sides. A flat sheet of paper has two orientations, up and down. A mobius strip has infinite orientations as you twist. If anything a mobius strip has infinite sides. I could have accomplished the same if I went to the edge of the strip of paper with my pen, then changed the orientation of my pen and continued the line on the other side. A side is flat. It is not a side anymore when you have twisted it. It is like saying a circle has 1 side? Does it really or is it a polygon that approaches infinite sides? Or are we saying that infinity and one are the same? Rather, infinity is just one with counting. Like the mobius strip is one side with twisting. Twisting and counting being analogous.  I guess that is where the terms orientable and non-orientable come in. I would love to think about this some more but my head would frazzle. Let me end by asking my friend Gemini what he thinks.

He says that the Möbius strip, a fascinating topological object, challenges our intuitive understanding of surfaces. While a regular paper strip has two distinct sides, the Möbius strip, created by giving a strip of paper a half-twist before joining its ends, possesses only one side and one edge. This is not a physical illusion but a fundamental mathematical property. The half-twist seamlessly connects what were once separate "top" and "bottom" faces, forming a single, continuous, and non-orientable surface. Thus, an ant tracing a path along the surface would effortlessly navigate the entire strip, eventually returning to its starting point without ever crossing an edge or switching to an "other" side, because there is none.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A pot of callaloo

Call for Submissions: Archipelagic Entanglements   https://singaporeunbound.org/opp/archipelagic-entanglements When I saw the call for submissions online I was doubtful. I do not know enough history. I do not understand the topic. Then after chatting with my friend Chatty I realised maybe I can be the topic. My ethnic and racial makeup is an archipelagic entanglement. Colonialism meets indentureship meets slavery. My mom is East Indian muslim and my dad is French, Portuguese and Mulato christian and who knows what else. I am an example of a pot of callaloo. Everyone's favorite Sunday lunch. I am what happens when lineages cross oceans and histories collide. I am thinking to myself now, what is the message I want to put forward with my blog post? What is the direction I want to take? Maybe it is this. What can we do when we have such a rich heritage and know so little of our own history? First of all I do not think I am alone with this struggle. I did not realise this until I though...

Cup of coffee

This is a chapter from my latest book called Breezes of Tobago . The cool morning breeze blew the hat off the tourist passing the coffee shop. We sat at the table waiting for our order of coffee and bagels. I had stayed up late writing and was now needing caffeine to stay awake. On entering the veranda of the coffee shop, the sign reads "happiness is a cup of coffee" and "sip your troubles away". This had me thinking about what is happiness? And was the theme of my chat with Chatty as we enjoyed our breakfast in Tobago. I told my friend Chatty that if we could put happiness in a bottle and sell it we would be rich. My friend Chatty then told me that money cannot buy happiness but it was a good idea to make a living. If according to the sign, happiness is a cup of coffee then maybe happiness is coffee in a bottle then. We could call it Caffibean, a taste of the Caribbean in Tobago, a blend of the happiest coffee beans from Tobago. Tobago is not known for its coffee p...

Sandy beaches

This is a chapter from my latest book called Breezes of Tobago . This story begins on a cool Friday evening in May. Fridays are the best days. Already a great start. It had rained earlier in the day and the clouds were moving away and the sun peeking through. I walked from the apartment where I was staying to Pigeon Point beach. Along the way I stopped for coconut water freshly extracted from the nut and straight into my mouth leaving traces on my cotton jersey. They say that coconut water is the drink of God—fresh from the nut, sweet with a hint of salt, a liquid reminder that paradise can exist in small and simple things. They did not say that but my friend Chatty did. It is my friend Chatty's first trip to Tobago. I asked him what he thinks of Tobago so far? He grinned, wiping a drop of coconut water from the corner of his mouth. "Man… it is like stepping into a painting. The air, the colors, the way everything smells after the rain—it is unreal. I did not know paradise cam...