Brazos Valley Math Teachers' Circle
2008-09
Meeting 1 Part A
Conway's Rational Tangles
Philip B. Yasskin
Department of Mathematics
Texas A&M University
Conway's Rational Tangles
Four people stand in a square holding the ends of two ropes. There are two movements: Two people on one side trade places or all four rotate around. As they move, the ropes get tangled. It turns out that each tangle can be assigned a rational number and if you know this rational, you can figure out how to untangle the ropes.
For more information, see the article by Tom Davis on
Video:
To be posted eventually.