Learn About Quantum Physics Through Crochet
INTRODUCTION
THE MOBICORIKON is a How To manual. It will guide you to understanding quantum physics through crocheting Mobius twists and other topological objects. It also includes instructions on how to crochet for the total beginner.
THE MÖBICORIKON
The Möbicorikon is a map and if you follow it you will gain an innate sense of the quantum world. Be prepared to be utterly flummoxed, enlightened despite your biases and to laugh out loud a lot. It is not hard and equally it is not easy. I cannot stress enough that this is a journey that can only be travelled by Doing! If you do not actually make the bodies-of-work herein, then you are not on the journey and you will learn little. The Möbicorikon uses string as its guide, and crochet is its method of choice. It will teach you beginner's crochet as well as Cook-Möbius quantum crochet. You will craft, from scratch, objects that are symmetrical in four dimensions or more, so how could you not gain a sense of the further dimensions?
CROCHET IS A METHOD OF PUTTING GAPS THROUGH GAPS
Crochet is the most versatile method of putting gaps through gaps to make a lattice of gaps. Crocheted bodies of work all begin with a crochet chain. A crochet chain is made up of chain stitches. You perform any chain stitch by hooking one new gap through the gap on-the-hook. That is it. It is confounding, but each chain stitch creates three gaps, plus an equal sized gap on-the-hook. Thus a gap (0) plus a gap on-the-hook (0) equals three gaps and a gap on-the-hook (3 plus 0).
Cook-Möbius Crochet is my method of crochet through which I gained an innate sense of the quantum world, which sense has been confirmed by personal communications over many years with physicists and mathematicians during the 25 years I have been writing this guide. I myself am not a physicist nor a mathematician; I drew certain informed and astonishing conclusions from actually following gaps and string, which conclusions were then confirmed by mathematicians and physicists, who gave me a scientific vocabulary for where our conclusions agree. I may be using their vocabulary incompletely or incorrectly ( so correct me!), but the fact remains that I did indeed draw correct conclusions. Try my method yourself and you will see the proof. An example of a confounding truth is the fact that if you put one new gap through another equal size gap, you have three gaps plus that new gap, all of that same size. I am like someone who does not know geometry, but can tell you the area of a square by drawing one on graph paper and simply counting the gaps inside it in an orderly and consistent manner. There are many mathematicians now, mostly female tellingly enough, who use crochet for mathematics, and swear by it.
Cook-Möbius crochet uses a type of Möbius twist as the heart, the start, of its bodies-of-work. This means they are topological objects.
Mobicorikon is an invented word, born from: Mobius, Core and Iconic.
No one understands quantum physics. Although we build fabulous and powerful machines using quantum mechanics, quantum physics itself is just theory. Quantum physics theory is incompatible with conventional physics. This is because our conventional physics and mathematics are wrong. They are incomplete, or "flattened". Conventional physics does not apply to the tiny world of quantum levels. Yet quantum levels apply to us! In our human world, we perceive only three dimensions, (i.e. length, width, height) plus time as a different kind of dimension. But there are more than three dimensions plus time at the quantum level and our physics and mathematics ignore those dimensions so we have started out on the wrong clod-hopping foot, so to speak. Directly connected to that mistake we also start with, and focus on, the stuff, not the gaps. That is a bias we need to rectify in order to marry our conventional physics with quantum physics. A musical analogy of this bias might be if you begin to play a piece of music omitting the "run-up" to the "first" beat. By following The Möbicorikon you will go a long way to achieving focus on the gaps, rather than the stuff. You will also get an inate sense of the further dimensions.
A WARNING AND A PROMISE
A Warning: be prepared to have your fundamental perceptions challenged! For instance you might perceive that 0+0=3+0, or that bigger is smaller, outside is inside, up is down, far is near, and the other way round. Also, you might become occasionally dyslexic if you are not already. You might also, on the other hand, find your ability to solve problems in your life greatly enhanced thanks to exercising your brain 'to think outside the box'. It is strong stuff and, A Promise: following The Möbicorikon will alter your brain's pathways and form new neurological connections. It is not for everyone, though all are welcome to try it.
Congratulations. You have completed your first body-of-work, a paper Möbius Strip.
DO! TAKE A PEN AND MARK YOUR MÖBIUS TWIST WITH CONSECUTIVE NUMBERED POINTS ALL ALONG THE EDGE UNTIL YOU GET BACK TO THE START!
EVERYTHING IS STRING BUT GAP IS KING
We can take a term from physicists and say that all matter is string. But all matter is made up of more gap than stuff. 99.9% of matter is in fact empty space--(we sit on a chair, but in fact there is empty space between us and the chair, so really we float on the chair...There is ALWAYS a gap!!!). Physicists agree that the heart of every inconceivably tiny particle is a tiny 'string' twisted into a Möbius ring, also known as a Möbius twist. Even a radio wave can be described as string. That there are gaps is implied but not focused upon. Yet all Matter exists, forms-and-grows bodies-of-work by gaps going through gaps.
AS ABOVE, SO BELOW
Scientists maintain that the tiny quantum world is unknowable, but I maintain that 'As Above, So Below', and that the Möbicorikon method of prioritising gaps mimics not only the quantum level but also the atomic levels, the human levels and the galactic levels of Gap, String, Turns, Dimensions, Travel and Growth.
SINCE YOU MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO CROCHET YET
Since you might not know how to crochet yet, the first body-of-work we will create on The Möbicorikon journey will be made out of paper, though that is a crude substitute for crocheting a Mobius twist from a crochet chain, it is not hard to do and will give you a vocabulary to work with. I stress again that if you do not actually make this body-of-work then you are not on the journey and there is little point in continuing. All you need is a rectangular strip of paper, a pen and a stapler or tape.
A SURFACE HAVING ONLY ONE SIDE AND ONE EDGE
The basic crocheted Body-of-Work of The Möbicorikon is a true Möbius Twist. A Möbius Twist is also called a Möbius Strip or a Möbius Ring. It is named after the mathematician A.F. Möbius-, (1790-1868). According to the Oxford English dictionary: "A Möbius Twist designates a surface having only one side and one edge, formed by twisting one end of a rectangular strip through 180 degrees and joining it to the other end."
In The Möbicorikon we use the basic crochet Starting Chain as the rectangular strip. This is the skinniest strip possible for us and unlike a fatter strip it does not require a seam to join the two ends, but can be done and continued all on the one unbroken journey. This is important but don't worry about understanding that just now. We will crochet plenty of Mobius Twists that are built on a separate and distinct rectangle before we advance to that stage.
NOTE: The OED's definition of a Möbius twist specifies a rectangular strip, but if you use string, not paper, it is perfectly possible to make a Mobius strip from a square. ( See next post)
Chapter One
We will make a Möbius strip out of paper and tape, by twisting one end of the rectangular strip through 180 degrees and joining it to the other end. Another way to define it is: join the back face of one end to the front face of the other end, using a half twist. Another way again to define it is, as in the photo below: join the two short ends by connecting point A to point B, and point C to point D, using a half twist. I used a stapler to join the ends together, you can also use tape.
DO! MAKE A MÖBIUS STRIP FROM A RECTANGULAR STRIP OF PAPER!
IMPORTANT! IF YOU ARE RIGHT-HANDED, ALWAYS TRAVEL TO YOUR LEFT/ANTI CLOCKWISE AND KEEP THE BODY-OF-WORK BELOW THE WORKING EDGE; IF YOU ARE LEFT-HANDED, ALWAYS TRAVEL TO YOUR RIGHT/CLOCKWISE AND KEEP THE BODY-OF-WORK BELOW THE WORKING EDGE.
If you are left-handed, bend the paper strip to your right.
DO! MARK YOUR PAPER A, B, C, AND D AS PICTURED ABOVE!
DO! CONNECT POINTS A AND B!
DO! CONNECT POINTS C AND D!
Congratulations. You have completed your first body-of-work, a paper Möbius Strip.
Your Möbius strip has only one side and one edge. Is it therefore one-dimensional? The piece of paper it is made from was two-dimensional, so is it two-dimensional? It occupies at least three dimensions of space, so is it three-dimensional? What do you think? Maybe it is none, all and more than the above. Welcome to the world of extra dimensions.
Next, in order for you to become better acquainted with your Möbius strip and all things quantum, you need to get your focus and your hands on the edge. The one continuous edge. Remember to always keep your consistent direction of travel, (go to the left if you're right-handed, go to the right if you're left-handed). I am going to get you to follow the edge by marking it with consecutive numbered points, all the way around until you get back to the start.
You need only make them roughly equidistant, but do circle each number so that the circle touches the edge above it.
After a few numbered points you will find that you need to manipulate the edge so that you can access it, pulling it gently 'up and out' from where the edge seems to disappear. I call that place 'The Core Gap'.
MORE
Next we are going to grow our body-of-work on; we are going to add stuff in all along the edge at the numbered points, and by doing so we lay an obvious track to follow behind us; we are going to raise the height of the edge, consecutive point by consecutive point; we are moving on to create the next level; the next Row; Do More. I have used safety pins, you can use paper clips, or even half a staple or tabs of tape, as long as you add something on to/at and beyond the edge, keeping to your consistent direction of travel and keeping the body-of-work below the edge. Begin at point 1, and again, when necessary, gently manipulate your edge so that you can access it, and add each safety pin in exactly the same orientation at each point as you get round to it. Do not get ahead of yourself! Just take it one step at a time.
Congratulations. You have added one layer to your Body-of-Work. You have 'grown it on'.
Note: CROCHET SPEAK
The layer you have just added is equivalent to what is called 'Row Zero of Stitch' in Cook-Möbius Crochet. The base layer of your paper Möbius twist is just a simplified model and its equivalent in Cook-Möbius Crochet is called the 'Starting Chain'. Do you remember that in Cook-Möbius Crochet we use the skinniest rectangle possible as our rectangle that will be twisted into a Möbius ring? That skinniest possible rectangle*** is a crochet Starting Chain, and the difference is that the twist gets programmed into the Starting Chain AS you perform Row Zero of Stitch, and consequently there is no need to make a separate seam of the two short ends, because the corners of the short ends are right next to each other.
***'As Above, So Below': Each crochet chain stitch is in itself a Möbius twist. It is a bit mind boggling, so where to start? The knot of the knotted loop that begins the Starting Chain is also a Möbius twist...the string you use to make the knot is also twisted. On down to the tiniest particles that make up the string-yes, you got it- make a Möbius twist. On a yet bigger scale (or is it smaller?) you are moving your hands plus the hook and the string and your body-of-work through the air along a twist, so you are twisting the air into your work even as you twist your work into the air. Accept this. As Above, So Below.
A crochet chain next to a paper strip. Can you imagine points A B C D on both the chain and the strip? Connect AB and CD on the chain. You will have a Möbius twist without a seam.
DO! STARTING AT POINT 1, PLACE A SAFETY PIN INTO EACH SAFETY PIN OF ROW 0 ALL AROUND THE EDGE UNTIL YOU GET BACK TO THE START!
Fantastic - loved this and it made thinking about physics so fun
ReplyDeleteThank you
ReplyDeleteTesla 3 6 9 with gaps in a matrix creating space, volume, potential
like concrete mix ratio of 3 cement
6 sand 9 pebble