To date, many mathematicians believed that there are only 85 possible ways to tie a tie. And yet, the knot that preferred a "bad" style to the film Matrix Reloaded was found to defy the alleged rule. The actual answer is now calculated on 177.147 different knots - even though many look like gore ties that no one would accept to wear.
Michael Vegdemo-Johanson, a mathematician at the Royal Institute of KHT in Stockholm, reports in New Scientist that he started studying the mathematics of knots when he saw one on YouTube video for the tie of the "Merovingian", a character from the well-known film.
He immediately realized that the unusual knot was absent from the list of strong knots that two Cambridge University mathematicians, Thomas Fink and Yong Mao, had come to.
1999, the two researchers had publish in Natur magazine, a mathematical "language" that describes the knots of the tie. Using tools from the logic industry, they outlined symbols of the basic binding rules, and concluded that there are only 85 strong knots.
But apparently they miscalculated. As Vegdemo-Johansson found, his colleagues had relied on two assumptions that limited the possible knots: First, the final movement σε οποιονδήποτε κόμπο είναι η δημιουργία μιας πτυχής με το ένα άκρο της γραβάτας να περνάει μέσα από τον υπόλοιπο κόμπο. Δεύτερον, όλοι οι κόμποι καλύπτονται από ένα επίπεδο κομeye fabric without creases.
In order to broaden the mathematical definition, Vegtemo-Johansson simplified the process and described the tethering movements as right-handed or left-handed spins of the tie around the free hanging edge.
In addition, it changed a basic rule as to how many moves one can make until the tie seems too short. Fink and Jong set the limit on 8 moves, Vegtemo-Johanson raised it to 11.
And the counting of all possible moves before reaching this limit gave 177.147 strong knots, which can be seen randomly in by clicking here created by the researcher.
Vegdemo-Johanson himself has now abandoned traditional knots for the sake of the most elaborate.
Η study of, titled More knots than we thought, is available in the arXiv pre-release service.
Source: in.gr
