Monday, November 19 2012

Drinking Topologically

Yes, it's impossible. Yes, it's real.

 

Searching for the perfect holiday gift for the topologist/mathematician/demented genius in your life? Or are you just irritated by boundaryless compact 2-manifold homeomorphs? Then have I got a solution for you! Courtesy of Bathsheba sculpture, I give you the Klein Bottle opener. 

Eine Kleine Bottle Opener

 

A 3D printed sculpture, it really works. According to the (delightful) ad copy on the site: 

The problem of beer That it is within a 'bottle', i.e. a boundaryless compact 2-manifold homeomorphic to the sphere. Since beer bottles are not (usually) pathological or "wild" spheres, but smooth manifolds, they separate 3-space into two non-communicating regions: inside, containing beer, and outside, containing you. This state must not remain.

A proposed solution Clearly the elegant course is to introduce a non-orientable manifold, which has one side and does not divide 3-space. When juxtaposed with the beer-bounding manifold described above, it acts to disrupt the continuity thereof, canceling the outdated paradigm of distinction between interior and exterior. This enables the desired interaction between beer and self.

It's all so obvious, when you think about it. Or when you've had enough beer. At $72 it's a bit pricey, but you'll be the only topologist on your block with one. 

Posted by Tim 'Smooth Manifold' Vandergrift AT 2:06PM

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