The cat's cradle, stirring, and topological complexity
Abstract
There are several physical situations in which the `tangling' of a loop is relevant: the game of cat's cradle is a simple example, but a more important application involves the stirring of a fluid by rods. Here we discuss how elementary topology constrains the types of mappings that can occur on a surface, for example when the surface is the domain of a two-dimensional fluid.
- Publication:
-
arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- April 2009
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.0904.0778
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0904.0778
- Bibcode:
- 2009arXiv0904.0778T
- Keywords:
-
- Nonlinear Sciences - Chaotic Dynamics
- E-Print:
- 7 pages, 5 figures, PDFLatex with RevTeX4. Published in Dynamical Systems Magazine (http://www.dynamicalsystems.org/ma/ma/display?item=292)