Alexandre-Théophile Vandermonde,
Peter Guthrie Tait
mathematics
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Knot theory
- A cord may be wound around itself
- and after its two ends are fused together
- it will stay tied.
- The question arose as to how
- closed loops like this
- were to be related or distinguished.
- To Vandermonde, a knot
- was like the path of a knight in chess
- as it covers the board without repeating.
- To Lord Kelvin, an atom
- was a knot of aether tied to itself,
- which is both interesting and wrong.
- And this got Peter Guthrie Tait
- to classify all possible knots,
- at least up to ten crossings.
Knottiness
- The minimum number of crossings
- is a particular knot’s knottiness—counted
- after undoing any nugatory crossings.
Cat’s cradle
- Let me show you how to make
- a manger for feeding cows
- from a loop of string.
- Thread it through
- the fingers of your two hands
- and let me take the string from you.
Gordian Knot
- To untangle a mess of yarn,
- it is not permissible to cut it.
- However, one reason
- problems remain unsolved
- and poems remain unwritten
- is a desire to obey the rules.
At first evolving separately, knot theory eventually became part of topology, but I must say that it seems a lot more fun working knots than solving problems in topology.
See also in The book of science:
Readings on wikipedia:
Other readings: