Personal and topological

[mrissa]

When I was putting on one of my new Christmas bras (that is, bras received as Christmas presents, not bras with a Christmas theme) on Christmas morning, I didn't pay much attention to it. It looked like the strap was twisted. I figured I wasn't doing anything that would need strenuous support and I would fix the strap later. So (after some wearing and an absent-minded washing (by hand, minnehaha K.: I do listen)) I went to put it on this morning and tried to untwist the strap. Um, nope. Sewed on wrong. Do you know what this means? It means I have a Möbius bra. Fear the mighty power of my Möbius bra! It is one-sided! And...umm...likely has other mighty powers of some sort!

I thought about it a bit and determined that, no, this does not mean I have Möbius breasts. This is a good thing, I think: being able to poke the interior of human beings' chests is much less of a positive than being able to poke the interior of paper strips or undergarments.

Also, you are not allowed to cut down the center of it to see if two bras result, because at best they would each be half the size, and this is one of the times when size is more important than topology.

Comments

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I made my MIL the recently retired science teacher a Möbius scarf for Christmas. To her credit, when we asked her to figure what was special about the shape, it took her about two seconds to figure it out.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

The Mrissa show is educational *and* sexy. Möbius breasts indeed!

[seagrit.livejournal.com]

Can you have a Mobius bra (or mobius whatever) with two holes in it? Isn't that an entirely different topology? Darn it, now you've got me picturing this in my head, trying to figure out if it really IS one sided! I think it is. Arg! Math brain attacks!

[markgritter.livejournal.com]

It's not a mobius strip, which has one surface with a boundary and no holes. But it is of the same family--- one bounded surface, multiple holes (while most bras presumably have two distinct surfaces.)

Really you have to treat the bra as infinitely thin to make this analysis anyway.

[seagrit.livejournal.com]

An infinitely thin bra? Well that would be useless!

My (apparently wrong) math instinct kept insisting that it would take multiple twists to make a multi-holed mobius object. Not true. But how many holes would it have once you cut it in half? :)

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

Your last paragraph made me laugh so loud that my co-workers came to see what was up.

I did not attempt to explain it to them.

[deva-fagan.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the chuckle! And for causing me to have to stop work and create my own little mobius strip and cut it up to remind myself how it works. It's embarrassing; my math degree has already gone poof as far as my brain is concerned.

[pameladean]

Your bra must be very proud. All my experience since I first, with a gigantic temper tantrum and furious resentment, put on a bra, has been that all bras, of whatever material or construction, aspire to the condition of being a Moebius bra.

P.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

A temper tantrum? Oh dear oh dear. My mom and I didn't stop laughing for something like a half an hour while we were buying me my first bra, so my associtions with it are significantly more positive than that. But yes, most of them try to do that horrid thing, especially if they have wires to encourage them, which mine do.

[zunger.livejournal.com]

I think this calls for celebratory donuts.

[ckd]

I had a donut here, but now all I can find is a coffee cup.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Snrk. Geek.

[ladysea.livejournal.com]

hehe. bras...bras...everywhere!

[kchew.livejournal.com]

My mathematician husband asks me to ask "When you wear your bra, can people tell your orientation?"

He just explained it to me. Now I get it.

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

I thought about it a bit and determined that, no, this does not mean I have Möbius breasts.

That's good. I'd hate to think that Mobius-ness is contagious.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

*snrk* Moebius bra indeed! Hehehhehehe...I like that.

I'm having more than a little trouble picturing what Moebius breasts would look like, though....