Moebius strip explained
p2pnet news | off topic:- 
Try to draw a line around it and no matter where you start, you always end up where you began.
‘It’ is the (in)famous Möbius strip, discovered separately by German mathematicians August Ferdinand Möbius and Johann Benedict Listing in 1858, and now it’s been explained.
Possibly the best-known illustration of this weird and wonderful visual paradox was the drawing of ants endlessly circling, created by Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher.
In a study published in the journal Nature Materials which “lyrically praises the strip for its ‘mathematical beauty’,” Gert van der Heijden and Eugene Starostin of University College London, in England, present the solution, says Agence France-Presse, going on:
What determines the strip’s shape is its differing areas of “energy density,” say the experts in non-linear dynamics.
“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.
If the width of the strip increases in proportion to its length, the zones of energy density also shift, which in term alters the shape, according to their equations. A wider strip, for instance, leads to nearly flat, “triangular” regions in the strip, a phenomenon that also happens when paper is crumpled.
Also See:
Agence France-Presse – Moebius strip riddle solved at last, July 16, 2007
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July 18th, 2007 at 8:47 am
what is weird and wonderfful is your brain. wtf does this have to do with p2p?
July 18th, 2007 at 10:38 am
Hey, look! Someone who doesn’t know what “off topic” means
July 18th, 2007 at 10:59 am
OT posts feature items or events which caught my eye and which I hope other people will also find interesting
Cheers!
July 18th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
The solution? The solution is that you get one of these by cutting a strip of paper, twisting it, and stapling it. How hard is that? Silly people–always looking for origin anywhere but a maker.
July 19th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
I just recently read D. Richard Lewis’ sci-fi novel called: “TIME TRIP ON A MOEBIUS STRIP,” and it ties in, or should I say, “twists in,” pretty well with this new theory these two scientists just came up with in the news explaining the riddle of the Moebius strip… The plot in this sci-fi novel is quite interesting…The author has this marine biologist discover a giant nautilus shell on the beach and then with the help of the great grandson of Professor Moebius, constructs a giant metal Moebius strip in the shell…The marine biologist then rides a vehicle upon the strip and enters another dimension where he then meets 16 famous missing people of history who have arrived in this time-less domain via a cloud…There is an angel in the story as well… The author has also discovered many amazing connections that these lost famous people have with eachother…I was in awe by them…Carl Jung would have probably tried to tie these connections in with his theory of “archetypes,” which is what the author does through one of the lead characters who is a woman psychiatrist. The novel was a great feat of historical research and quite original…A++++
The article about the discovery to the riddle of the Moebius strip can be found at:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/