Monday, May 18, 2009

Amazing Moebius

This is a Moebius Strip in the creative work of M. C. Escher. A Moebius Strip has amazing properties. You can explore these by making your own Moebius Strip (without the ants!) quite easily. Take a strip of paper, give it a half-twist (turn one end over), and then tape the ends together. The result should look like the following:


Some things you might want to try are to put a dot in the center and trace a line along the "length" of the loop until you come back to where you started. Is this the same thing that would happen with a regular loop of paper? Now that you have a line along the center all the way around, grab a pair of scissors and cut along that line. Is this what would have happened with a regular loop of paper?

Much art, including sculpture by Max Bill and engravings by M.C. Escher have been based on the Moebius Stip and its properties. Stories have also been written, incluing "A Subway Named Moebius" by A.J. Deutch and "The No-sided Professor" by Martin Gardner.



And then there are the people who REALLY know how to have fun with a Moebius Strip, such as the creators of this video!

(Music by Didier Soyuz. Animation by Johnny Rem.)

Notice how the character goes around and around but is on top one time and bottom the other . . .





Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Conquering Chaos

Can you conquer chaos? To play the game click here.

In Fractal Geometry, "Chaos" can be used create amazing images. Rober Devaney of Boston University has created this game to help his students understand this process. To find out more about The Chaos Game click here. To find out more about the wild world of Fractals, explore his site, which the link takes you to - or just play the game and have fun!