Möbius Madness
Since its discovery in the 19th century, the astonishing one-sided, one-edged Möbius strip has confounded and fascinated generations of people, inspiring stories, magic tricks, patents, artworks, cartoons, playground equipment, and much else. Learn more than you ever thought possible about how a mathematical object conquered the modern world.
Online Bibliography
Möbius Strips
Burger, E.B., and M. Starbird. 2000. The band that didn't stop playing. In The Heart of Mathematics: An Invitation to Effective Thinking. Key College Publishing.
Fauvel, J., R. Flood, and R. Wilson, eds. 1993. Möbius and his Band: Mathematics and Astronomy in Nineteenth-Century Germany. Oxford University Press.
Gardner, M. 1989. Möbius bands. In Mathematical Magic Show. Mathematical Association of America.
______. 1956. Mathematics, Magic and Mystery. Dover.
Jones, P., and J. Powell. 1999. Gary Anderson has been found! Resource Recycling (May).
Long, C. 1998. Bug bands and monkey saddles. Math Horizons 5(April):24-28. Available at http://www.wcnet.org/~clong/carving/carving.html.
______. 1996. Möbius or almost Möbius. College Mathematics Journal 27(September):277.
Peterson, I. 2007. Knitting network. Science News Online (Jan. 27).
______. 2006. Möbius at the shopping mall. Science News Online (April 5).
______. 2003. Strolling down Möbius lane. MAA Online (Nov. 3).
______. 2003. Recycling topology. Science News Online (April 26).
______. 2002. Crystal Möbius. MAA Online (May 27).
______. 2000. Möbius at Fermilab. MAA Online (Sept. 4).
______. 2000. Möbius and his band. MAA Online (July 10).
______. 1999. Möbius in the playground. MAA Online (May 24).
Pickover, C.A, 2006. The Möbius Strip: Dr. August Möbius's Marvelous Band in Mathematics, Games, Literature, Art, Technology, and Cosmology. Thunder's Mouth Press.
A brief biography of August Ferdinand Möbius can be found at http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Mathematicians/Mobius.html.
Learn the Afghan bands magic trick at http://www.jamesgrant.ca/Magic%20Tricks!.htm.
