Mathematical objects

Alun’s comment on a post about Moebius strips has a link to a site selling Klein bottles. which are attempts to create a Moebius strip in a bottle format.

( I don’t know whether they are Mobius or Moebius strips or whether the o should have dots above it, or even whether the word needs capitals. It’s hard enough typing the rather than teh on a regular basis, let alone being consistent with old Dutch/German surnames.)

Zeolite commented to say that she’s accidentally crocheted a Moebius coffee-cup holder.

You can also find a Moebius dress on yankodesign It’s made out of felt, so it doesn’t need seams.

This would be more impressive if normal clothes didnt behave as if they had become Moebius strips when you have to put them on in a hurry. Surely Moebius strip topology is built into the design of every quilt cover.

There is a mobius strip bag on Makezine. This is designed to exploit the properties of the Moebius strip by the fact that you can split it down the middle to make a shoulder bag.

This page also shows a couple of deeply unflattering, but mathematically pleasing, clothes with edges made using mathematical sequences. There’s a jacket fringe edge based on a Fibonacci sequence. Hmm, I don’t really get that. Surely lace and crocheting are always based on mathematical sequences.

If you want a fractal garment – well, VISIBLY fractal, since creating a non-fractal fabric would be a real challenge for mathematics – it looks like you still will just have to make do with Mandelbrot sets printed on t-shirts, sadly.

Moebius strip

Moebius strips are wonderful. There’s an image at http://images.salon.com/comics/tomo/2003/08/29/tomo/story.jpg
showing Bush’s foreign policy as a Mobius strip. I couldn’t save it here so I borrowed this one from mcescher.com

Escher’s mobius strip

Seed magazine says that two mathematicians – Gert van der Heijden and Eugene Starostin – have resolved the shape algebraically. I’ll have to take that on trust. I can’t even grasp what the problem is, so I doubt I’ll understand the solution..

What determines the strip’s shape is its differing areas of “energy density,” they say.
“Energy density” means the stored, elastic energy that is contained in the strip as a result of the folding. Places where the strip is most bent have the highest energy density; conversely, places that are flat and unstressed by a fold have the least energy density.