In a groundbreaking development, a 50-year-old chemical mystery has been solved, providing a significant breakthrough in the world of mathematics and chemistry. The Möbius strip is a surface with only one side and one edge, formed by twisting a strip of paper and joining its ends.
Solving the Optimal Aspect Ratio Puzzle
The question that has puzzled scientists for half a century is how to construct an embedded Möbius strip made out of paper with the optimal aspect ratio. Schwartz’s proof is based on the fact that cutting a Möbius strip at an angle forms a trapezoid, not a parallelogram as previously believed. This discovery allowed Schwartz to set up and solve an optimization problem, leading to the solution of the 50-year-old puzzle.