
Helen R Klebesadel
Madison, Wisconsin
Helen Klebesadel is an artist, arts activist, educator, and creativity coach who maintains her studio in Madison, WI USA
MessageCollection: Ribbon and Knot Theory
Archaeologists have discovered that knot tying dates back to prehistoric times. Besides their uses such as recording information and tying objects together, knots have interested humans for their aesthetics and spiritual symbolism. Knots appear in various forms of Chinese artwork dating from several centuries BC . The endless knot appears in Tibetan Buddhism, while the Borromean rings have made repeated appearances in different cultures, often representing strength in unity. The Celtic monks who created the Book of Kells created entire pages with intricate Celtic knotwork.
Scientific Knot theory is the study of mathematical knots. It was inspired by knots which appear in daily life, however a mathematical knot differs in that the ends are joined so it cannot be undone. Knot theory was born out of a desire to understand our universe through a scientific lens. There was a theory in the 1860s that all the elements in the universe were made up of tiny knots, and thus mathematicians began to attempt to understand knots better. It took mathematicians approximately 50 years to categorize all the knots with up to 10 crossings. Many of the illustrations of these knots look like cultural the artifacts described above,
There are geometric, algebraic, and topological ways of looking at knots and all provide different insights. It turned out the universe is NOT made up of tiny knots, but the studies came in handy when In the 1990s, geneticists began looking at knotted DNA and proteins through the lens of topology. They realized that since DNA is a long string that is clumped within the nucleus, there must be many twists and folds so that it all fits. Examining DNA from the view of knot theory may show us there is much more to learn from these mathematics that do not measure....
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