Mobius Strip: 'Endless Ribbon' Mystery Solved

Science Daily 26 July 2007:

Dr Eugene Starostin and Dr Gert van der Heijden (both from UCL Civil & Environmental Engineering) recently published the solution to a 75-year-old mystery.
A Möbius strip made with a piece of paper and tape. (Credit: David Benbennick / Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

The two academics have discovered how to predict the shape of a Möbius strip, the ‘endless ribbon’ which is obtained by taking a rectangular strip of paper, twisting one end through 180 degrees, and then joining the ends.

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Cryptography and Mathematics

Read the Neal Koblitz latest article, The Uneasy Relationship Between Mathematics and Cryptography from the American Mathematics Society.



The worlds of academic mathematical research and commercial and governmental application, with their occasionally distinct values and practices, meet and sometimes clash in the study and implementation of cryptosystems. The author describes his own experiences, and those of mathematical colleagues, in this intersection.

While you are at the AMS site, have a look at Artful Mathematics: The Heritage of M. C. Escher. Published in 2003, includes 3 very interesting articles on the Mathematics of Escher.