Assertion, unsupported by fact, is nugatory. Surmise and general abuse, in however elegant language, ought not to pass for truth. Junius

2004/12/27

Conservative Party Topography

Has anyone noticed the big "C" in the Conservative Party logo is essentially a Moebius loop? You'd have to connect the ends of the "C" together to get the loop, but that characteristic Moebius "twist" --- the delight of topographers and physicists everywhere --- is definitely present. A Moebius loop has several odd properties worth noting:
  • it has only one edge
  • it has only one side
  • left and right are meaningless when describing its properties
  • it is a two-dimensional object existing in three dimensions
  • if you travel along it you reverse your orientation when you arrive at the place you started
  • if you stitch two of them together edge to edge, you end up with a Klein bottle. Interestingly, you cannot unite two Mobius strips into a Klein bottle properly in three dimensions.
  • Furthermore, a Klein bottle paradoxically has no volume, and neither has it any boundaries, nor any inside or outside. In three dimensions, it has a hole, but in the fourth, the hole vanishes.
  • Klein bottles (and Moebius loops) are also beloved of topographically-minded knitters. I have no idea why. Google "Moebius strips knitting" and you'll see what I mean.

And who says graphic designers don't have a sense of humour?


1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Of course the key difference is that the Moebius strip has only one edge, whereas the CPoC has no edge at all.

-Balbulican

Tuesday, 28 December, 2004  

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