Create your Endless Story on a Mobius Strip!

• A strip of paper, 1 foot long by 3 inches wide

• Tape

• A color Marker or pen/pencil

• Scissors

• Optional: Stickers for decorating…

• Notice the two short ends of your paper strip. Hold the strip flat, and then take one of the short ends, given that end a half twist, and then tape both short ends of the strip together.

• Ta-Dah! You have now created a “Mobius” strip! It has only one side and only one edge. Remarkable you say? Let’s prove it!

• Take a color marker (or pen/pencil). Place the point of the marker midway between the long “edges” of the Mobius strip. Now draw a line starting from that point all along the center, continuing along the strip until you return to the starting point.

• What do you notice? Is there any place where the line doesn’t appear down the center?

• Now, hold one long edge of the Mobius strip against the tip of the marker. Color the edge of the strip by holding the marker still and just rotating the Mobius strip around….. does the line ever cross an edge?

• Now, think of a simple story that repeats (i.e., I have a seed. I plant the seed in the ground. I water it. It grows into a small plant. The plant drops new seeds on the ground. I have a seed… I plant the seed in the ground, etc.

• Write words, or draw illustrations, or use stickers, to show your own endless story along the center length of your Mobius strip, continuing the story until it returns to its original beginning. You now have an endless story!!!!

• Create another Mobius strip without anything drawn or written on it.

• Place a color marker (Pen/pencil) midway between the long “edges” of the Mobius strip. Draw a line starting from that point all along the center, continuing until you return to the starting point.

• Use Scissors to cut the Mobius strip along the center line.. Can you predict what will happen?

• Can you create another endless story along this new version?

• Start with a new strip of paper. Try twisting the strip two, three, and more times before taping the two short edges together.

• What’s happening? Can you make more endless stories with these versions?

The Mobius Strip, or Mobius Band, is named after August Ferdinand Mobius, a 19th century German Mathematician and Astronomer who was a poineer in the field of topology (the strip was also discovered independently around the same time by Johann B. Listing).

The unique property of the strip is that is has only one side and only one edge —- which also has practical applications in industry where large Mobius strips have been used as conveyor belts (making them last longer as each “side” wears the same), and as continuous loop recording tapes (which double the playing time)