Search This Blog

The Mobius Strip - Yet another surprise

The Mobius Strip - Yet another surprise

The Mobius Strip is full of surprises, but here's one you've probably not seen.

Take a strip of paper, join the ends so you have a band. This is a very simple object with 2 surfaces.

Now give the strip of paper 1 half twist before joining the ends. This is the famous Mobius Strip. Despite how it looks it only has 1 surface. Does a half twist clockwise give the same object as a half twist counter clockwise, or are these two different objects?

But a nice surprise is in store..

This time give the strip of paper 4 half twists before joining the ends. This has 2 surfaces. Now play around with it for a while. At some point it will suddenly "flip" into a double thickness band with 1 half twist. In other words it flips into a double thickness Mobius Strip. One surface has gone, and so have 3 half twists!

Content written and posted by Ken Abbott abbottsystems@gmail.com