The ribbon invented by Möbius. Inventor

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THE RIBBON THAT MÖBIUS DEVELOPED

And then an inventor appeared (TRIZ)

Books and articles / And then came the inventor

TRIZ. The ribbon invented by Möbius

In the story of the famous science fiction writer Arthur Clarke "The Wall of Gloom", the sage Greil asks his interlocutor:

“Here,” he said to Braildon, “is a flat sheet.” There are, of course, two sides to it. Can you imagine this sheet without two sides?

Braildon looked at him in surprise.

- It's impossible..."

Indeed, at first glance, this is impossible. Take a strip of paper - it has two sides. You can connect, glue the ends of the strip, you get a ring, and still there will be two surfaces: outer and inner. And if you first twist the sheet, and then connect the ends? ..

"Grail joined the ends of the paper strip together again, but first twisted it once.

"Travel your finger now," Greil said softly.

Braildon did not do this, he already understood what the old sage meant.

“I understand,” he said. - No more two separate planes. Now - one continuous surface, one-sided plane..."

The "twisted" ring was called the Möbius strip - after the German mathematician who first described its unusual properties.

Imagine that an ant is traveling along the outer surface of an ordinary ring. If the ant does not cross the edges, but walks along the leaf, it will return to its starting point, bypassing the outer surface. On the Möbius strip, the ant's journey will last twice as long: the ant, without crossing the edges, will bypass both surfaces - the outer and inner. Such a journey through an unusual planet is made by one of the heroes of the "Wall of Gloom". Fantastic, you say. No! Even today, the amazing properties of the Möbius strip are used in a wide variety of inventions.

Imagine an ordinary ribbon forming a ring. Sanding powder is applied to the outside of the belt. The tape is pressed against the product, scrolled, and polishing occurs. After some time, the sanding layer on the belt itself wears off. We have to interrupt the process and change the tape. How can you make the tape work twice as long if the size of the tape cannot be increased? Several years ago, the Soviet inventor A. Gubaidullin was issued an author's certificate for a grinding device with a Möbius strip: the dimensions of the tape remained the same, but the length of the grinding surface (and therefore the durability of the tape) doubled. Isn't it a witty solution?

There are filters in which liquid is passed through a band of filter material. Gradually, this tape becomes clogged, you have to change it. You probably already guessed what needs to be done... Yes, a copyright certificate has also been issued for the filter with the Möbius strip. There is also a copyright certificate for a tape recorder with a Möbius strip. In total, over a hundred patents and copyright certificates have been issued in different countries in recent years for the use of this amazing tape. It turns out that inventions are created not only according to the formula "cunning plus physics", but also according to the formula "cunning plus geometry" ...

Cut out two circles from cardboard. Lay one circle on the table and keep the other circle above the first. Connect the edges of the disks with several wooden slats. Get a lattice cylinder. Something like a squirrel wheel lying on its side. Now rotate the top disc in one direction and the bottom disc in the other. There is a curvilinear figure with a thin "waist", reminiscent of an hourglass. The greater the angle of rotation of the disks, the thinner the "waist". This figure is called a hyperboloid of revolution and has many properties that are very attractive to the inventor. The surface of the hyperboloid is curvilinear, although it is formed by straight bars. Hence, the hyperboloid is easy to fabricate. The Shukhov tower in the Moscow television center on Shabolovka is a hyperboloid. The tower is made of straight metal rods, and the "torsion" gives the structure stability and strength. It would be very difficult to build a tower with any other curved plane: curved rods would be required.

The most valuable property of a hyperboloid is that it is easy to change the curvature of its surface. Turned the base - the curvature changes. This property has been used in many inventions. In Japan, for example, "hyperboloid" rollers for a conveyor belt have recently been patented. Unlike conventional cylindrical rollers, "hyperboloid" rollers change their curvature and hence the curvature of the conveyor belt. And this is very important. When transporting bulk cargo, the belt must be concave. If there are boxes on the conveyor, the belt should be flat.

In copyright certificate No. 426 618, the following claims are given: "A copying roller of a potato harvester, containing two disks mounted on a shaft, interconnected by twigs, characterized in that, in order to ensure the possibility of adapting the working surface of the rink to different profiles of beds, the twigs are connected to disks are hinged, and the disks are mounted on a shaft with the possibility of turning them relative to another. The word "hyperboloid" is not mentioned, but even without explanation it is clear - the property of the hyperboloid is used to easily change the curvature.

There are many other "geometric inventions" based on the use of paraboloids, spirals, etc. It turns out that the inventor needs to know not only physics, but also mathematics. And not just math. If knowledge of at least "school" chemistry is added to the theory of inventive problem solving, the creative arsenal will be much enriched.

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