All articles tagged with #richard schwartz
Originally Published 2 months ago — by ZME Science
Mathematician Richard Schwartz has solved a 50-year-old puzzle about the minimal size of a developable Möbius strip, establishing that its aspect ratio must be greater than √3 (about 1.73) to avoid collapsing, and opening new questions about twisted strips and their properties.
Originally Published 2 years ago — by ScienceAlert
Mathematician Richard Schwartz has proposed a solution to a long-standing problem in mathematics: determining the smallest size of a Möbius strip without self-intersection. The problem, originally posed in 1977, involves finding the ratio between the length and width of the strip. Schwartz's solution, based on squashing paper Möbius strips, revealed a trapezoid shape instead of a parallelogram. After correcting an error in his previous work, Schwartz found that the ratio is equal to the square root of 3 (√3). Möbius strips, with their unique properties, have been used in various applications such as tape recorders, typewriters, and the recycling symbol.