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Exploring The Shape of Space

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Exploring The Shape of Space

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Eman Anwar

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xploring the

: F;
Shape of Space
Jeffrey R. Weeks

ie*6
CD-ROM with Gam Activ'«
■
es and Digitized Video • Blackline

Key Curriculum Press

Exploring the
Shape of Space
Jeffrey R. Weeks

Key Curriculum Press

■¡Mil Innovators in Mathematics Education
Project Editor: Joan Lewis
Editorial Assistant: Heather Dever
Software Development: Jeffrey R. Weeks
Teacher Reviewer: Kay Shager
Mathematics Reviewer: Larry Copes
Science Reviewer: Sheldon Carroll
Production Editor: Kristin Ferraioli
Copy Editor: Mary Roybal
Production and Manufacturing Manager: Diana Jean Parks
Text Designer and Production Coordinator: Jenny Somerville
Compositor: Christi Payne, Book Arts
Art Editor: Jason Luz
Technical Artist: Tom Webster, Lineworks, Inc.
Illustrator and Photo Researcher: Jason Luz
Art and Design Coordinator: Caroline Ayres
Cover Designer: Jenny Somerville
Prepress and Printing: Versa Press, Inc.

Executive Editor: Casey FitzSimons

Publisher: Steven Rasmussen

© 2001 by Key Curriculum Press. All rights reserved.

Limited Reproduction Permission

The publisher grants the teacher who purchases Exploring the Shape of Space the right
to reproduce material for use in his or her own classroom. Unauthorized copying of
Exploring the Shape of Space constitutes copyright infringement and is a violation of
federal law.

The material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under
awards ESI-9550493 (Torus and Klein Bottle Games), DMS89-20161 ( The Shape of Space
video), and ESI-9730250 (classroom materials). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions
or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Key Curriculum Press

1150 65th Street
Emeryville, CA 94608
510-595-7000
[email protected]
http ://www. keypress. com

Printed in the United States of America

10 987654321 04 03 02 01 00
ISBN 1-55953-467-2
Acknoudedqnteitts
A great many people contributed to these materials.
First and foremost, the participants in the 1998 Shape of Space in the
Middle School workshop brought the materials into classroom-ready
form. They spent the first week of the workshop revising the materials
for classroom use, and then spent the second week testing them with a
group of middle school students (grades 6 and 7) and making additional
revisions. In the fall of 1998, workshop participants piloted the resulting
unit with their own classes (grades 3 through 10), and suggested further
improvements. The practicality of the final unit is the result of their
efforts and imagination. The workshop participants were Matt Bardoe,
Creative Children’s Academy; Kerry Hanifl, Apple Valley High School;
Mike Huberty, Mounds View High School; Robin Jones, Breck School; and
Monica Kocourek, Benilde-St. Margaret’s School. Lori Thomson of The
Geometry Center played a key role, both in the creation of the materials
and as a co-organizer of the workshop. Arnie Cutler, Linda Halet, and
Dick McGehee handled many of the behind-the-scenes arrangements.
The Torus and Klein Bottle Games on which the unit depends were
developed as part of the Space Explorations Project at Bolt, Beranek,
and Newman, for teaching visual mathematics at the high school level.
Gabriel Katz and Wally Feurzeig led that project. Most importantly,
Wally Feurzeig had the inspiration to develop separate curriculum
materials suitable for middle school. Phil Lewis also provided
useful ideas.
The other multimedia component of the unit, the video The Shape of
Space, was produced at The Geometry Center in 1995 by Charlie Gunn,
Stuart Levy, Delle Maxwell, Tamara Munzner, Lori Thomson, and Jeff
Weeks.
In the summer of 1995, a team at The Geometry Center produced a
comprehensive set of teaching materials for the shape of space concept
and related ideas in topology and geometry. The team members were
Barbara Foster, James Huber, Laura Moss, Jodi Schneider, Jerald
TerEick, and Daniel Verinder. Chaim Goodman-Strauss advised them.
In the spring of 1997, Lori Thomson produced a set of Web-based
classroom materials to support the video The Shape of Space, drawing on
the work of the 1995 summer team. The present unit, in turn,
incorporates parts of Lori’s work.
Independently of The Geometry Center, Dan Stromgren and Rick
Tomlinson (McKenney Middle School, Canton NY) let me pilot early
versions of this unit with their students and provided excellent
suggestions for improving the materials. Lori Thomson collaborated
in preparing the materials for those classes.

Exploring the Shape of Space iii

The anonymous reviewers for the National Science Foundation and,

especially, Alverna Champion helped shape this project, and provided
help and encouragement in getting it out into the schools where it
can enrich children’s lives. I thank the NSF for funding the main
development of these materials, and the John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation for its support during later revisions.
Finally, Joan Lewis, Kristin Ferraioli, Jason Luz, Jenny Somerville, and
their colleagues at Key Curriculum Press guided these lessons into their
final form.

Jeff Weeks

¡V Exploring the Shape of Space

Contents
To the Teacher vii
Why Explore the Shape of Space? ix

How to Use This Book xi

Resources xiii

1 Fiatland 1
Teacher Notes 2

Transparency 1: How Big Is the Universe? 5

Activity 1: How Big Is the Universe? 6

Homework 1: Flatland 7

2 Wraparound Universe 9

Teacher Notes 10
Transparency 2: Definitions 13
Activity 2a: Coordinates 14
Activity 2b: Dimensions 16
Activity 2c: Finite/Infinite, Boundary/No Boundary 18
Homework 2: Wraparound Universe 20

3 Cylindrical Tic-Tac-Toe 23

Teacher Notes 24

Transparency 3: Tic-Tac-Toe 28

Activity 3a: Tic-Tac-Toe on a Cylinder 29

Activity 3b: Equivalent Games 30

Homework 3: Cylindrical Tic-Tac-Toe 31

4 Torus Games 33
Teacher Notes 34

Transparency 4: Torus Introduction 37

Homework 4: Torus Games 38

5 More Torus Games 41

Teacher Notes 42
Transparency 5: Tiling View Introduction 44
Activity 5: Games on a Torus 45
Homework 5: More Torus Games 48

Exploring the Shape of Space V

6 The 3-Torus 51
Teacher Notes 52

Video Guide 1: The Shape of Space, Part 1 55

Transparency 6: The Real Universe 56

Activity 6a: The Real Universe 57

Activity 6b: Torus Dimensions 58

Homework 6: The 3-Torus 61

Reading: Cosmology 63

Celestial Map: Locating the Andromeda Galaxy 68

7 Möbius Strips 69

Teacher Notes 70

Transparency 7a: Möbius Tic-Tac-Toe 72

Transparency 7b: Tic-Tac-Toe Tiling View 73

Activity 7a: Making Möbius Strips 74

Activity 7b: Möbius Strip Tiling View 76

Homework 7: Möbius Strips 78

8 Klein Bottle Games 81

Teacher Notes 82
Transparency 8: Klein Bottle Games Introduction 85
Activity 8: Games on a Klein Bottle 86
Homework 8: Klein Bottle Games 88

9 More Shapes for Space 91

Teacher Notes 92
Video Guide 2: The Shape of Space, Part 2 96
Activity 9: Mystery Spaces 97
Homework 9: More Shapes for Space 102

Test 103

Answers 107

Glossary 129

vi Exploring the Shape of Space

To tk& Teacher

The seed from which this unit sprouted was an early version of the Torus
and Klein Bottle Games. The games were intended to let high school and
college students learn about different spaces by playing games in them.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my son (then four years old)
and his friends had no problems playing these games in strange spaces.
I soon realized that the difficulties adults experience when learning new
concepts of space aren’t so much with the new ideas themselves, but with
unlearning their old ways of thinking. Children approach new ideas with
open minds and fewer old ideas to overcome.
It was also clear that children learn geometry by Seeing and doing, not
by listening or reading. In other words, as they concentrate on their
strategy in a torus tic-tac-toe game or lead a mouse through a Klein
bottle maze to reach the cheese, children build up an intuition for the
new kind of space in which the tic-tac-toe board or maze exists.
Over the next few years the video The Shape of Space video supplemented
the games, and the classroom activities completed the package. I hope
you and your students have as much fun with these materials as my
students and I have had. If, when looking up at the sky on a clear night,
your students see the universe as they’ve never seen it before, this unit
will have been a success.

Jeff Weeks
Canton, New York
September 2000

Exploring the Shape of Space vii

♦

<
Why Explore, the> Shape, ofSpate,?

Why should you teach Exploring the Shape of Space in your classes?
There are three reasons:

Mathematical reason
Exploring the Shape of Space provides a solid introduction to 1-, 2-, and
3-dimensional geometry for students in grades six through ten. One
teacher, Robin Jones, taught the unit in September as the first topic in
her sixth-grade mathematics classes, and commented
One thing I have noticed since ending the unit is that my students’
understanding of one, two, and three dimensions has held. When we
talk about area and volume, they’re much more knowledgeable than
the kids I taught last year. They have learned to visualize better.
Students at all levels will see that geometry is a living subject
responding to the needs of twenty-first century science, not a dead
discipline finalized in ancient times. The unit supports the Principles
and Standards for School Mathematics set forth by the National Council
of Teachers of Mathematics and places a strong emphasis on creative
problem solving and the tight connections between the geometry and its
cosmological applications.

Social reason
The middle school mathematics curriculum often becomes stratified.
Brighter students enjoy a wealth of enrichment activities, while average
students are left with a numbing repetition of decimals, fractions, and
percents. Mastery of decimals, fractions, and percents is of course
essential, but average students also need to stretch their minds with
new and beautiful ideas. Exploring the Shape of Space is ideal for this
purpose. The main idea (that space can be finite yet have no boundary) is
new and startling, yet elegantly simple. Best of all, it makes its demands
on the students’ imaginations, not their computational abilities, so the
unit appeals to and is accessible to all students, independently of their
previous success in mathematics. (Classroom testing has borne this
claim out. A sixth-grade teacher who taught the unit simultaneously to
her one gifted class, two average classes, and one remedial class reported
that while the gifted class did better on the exam, the students in the
remedial class did as well as those in the average class.) The unit sparks
the interest of students at risk of being turned off by mathematics. In
particular, the unit reaches visual learners who often struggle with the
standard middle school curriculum.

Exploring the Shape of Space ix

Scientific reason
Humanity may soon answer the ancient question of whether the universe
is finite or infinite, using data from satellites to be launched by NASA in
2001 and the European Space Agency in 2007. (For details, please see the
Cosmology reading on page 63. ) Exploring the Shape of Space prepares
students to appreciate these experiments by letting them see how the
universe can be finite yet have no boundary, and by helping them develop
an intuitive understanding of several possible shapes.

X Exploring the Shape of Space

Howto Use* This Book
Exploring the Shape of Space introduces students to one, two, and three
dimensions in a very modern way, by exploring some possible shapes for
our 3-dimensional universe. The students learn by example, using paper-
and-scissors activities, pencil-and-paper games, Java-based computer
games, and a computer-animated video (The Shape of Space) to explore a
few of the simplest possible universes in an intuitive, hands-on way.
Throughout the unit, geometry interweaves with cosmology, including
current research efforts to determine the shape of the real universe.
The unit contains nine lessons, including complete teacher notes,
blackline master student activity sheets and homework assignments,
optional transparency masters, a final test, a reproducible glossary, and
an answer key. Each lesson requires one class period, with the exception
that teachers of younger middle school classes may want to allow extra
time in Lesson 2 for the introductory activities on coordinates. Thus,
allowing one day for the test at the end, the entire unit requires ten or
eleven class periods. Teachers wishing a shorter unit can do Lessons 1
through 6, omitting Lessons 7 through 9 and the test. Teachers with more
time or those on block schedules can explore student ideas in greater
depth during class discussions, perhaps spreading two lessons over three
class periods. An extra period can be devoted to discussing the Cosmology
reading in depth. As part of a longer unit, students can delve more deeply
into cosmology, investigating topics such as those in the Further Study
section of the Lesson 6 teacher notes. After researching their topics in a
traditional library or on the Internet, students can present their results
as classroom presentations, written reports, posters, or Web pages.
The lessons are a combination of whole-class discussions and activities
for groups of three or four students each. The whole-class discussions
appear as dialogs in the teacher notes. The dialogs needn’t be followed
literally, but serve to indicate the main points of the discussion in a
format that’s easy to glance at during class. Follow your students’
interests in the discussion and realize that it sometimes takes time to
arrive at the ideas you are seeking.
Lessons 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 9 take place in the classroom and require only
the materials listed on the opening page of each lesson. Lessons 6 and 9
use the video The Shape of Space, sold separately in VHS or PAL format.
The video is also provided in digital format on the CD-ROM included
with this book. Following The Shape of Space, the editors have included
on the same tape a short interview that PBS did with me for the series
Life by the Numbers. To give students a view of the human side of
mathematics, you may want to show the interview during the last
15 minutes of class the day you give the test.

Exploring the Shape of Space xi

Lessons 4, 5, and 8 require computers, either in the classroom or in a
computer lab. One computer for every two students is ideal, but if
computer availability is limited, one computer for every three or four
students is also fine. Before you begin class, you or your school’s
computer specialist should copy the Torus Games folder (included on
the CD-ROM in the Space folder) onto the computers’ hard drives, or
onto a central file server. The games are arranged on Web pages, and
require a Java-capable Web browser. (Internet Explorer runs Java
applets more reliably than Netscape Navigator. For more details, please
see TorusGames/html/UsingGames.html on the CD-ROM.) When you first
install the games, make a bookmark for them in each Web browser—this
will save class time later by making it easy for students to locate the
games quickly. Students with access to a computer after school can
access the games online through Key Curriculum Press’s Exploring the
Shape of Space Web site at http://www.keypress.com/space/. You may also
visit this Web site for
• technical support
• answers to mathematical questions that may arise
• up-to-date information on ongoing cosmological research
• new or updated software that may become available
• questions or comments for the author

xii Exploring the Shape of Space

Resources
1. Abbott, Edwin. Fiatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, New York:
Dover, 1992.
Students who enjoy the 2-dimensional worlds in Lesson 1 will love
Edwin Abbott’s 1884 classic Fiatland. The first half of the book is
Victorian social satire—reassure the students that Abbott was a
satirist, not a misogynist! The second half gets into the geometry,
chronicling the adventures of a flatlander trying to understand the
third dimension, and starting the reader on the path to a fourth
dimension.
Older middle school students with good reading skills will do fine
with this book, but younger students may have trouble with the
nineteenth century prose. The writing is clear and powerful, but relies
on an extensive vocabulary.
This wonderful book is so inexpensive, you can buy an individual copy
for every student in your class for less than the cost of a single copy of
most other books.
2. Osserman, Robert. Poetry of Universe, New York: Anchor Books, 1996.
An excellent historical account of the science and mathematics of the
universe.
This is truly a layperson’s account—no science or mathematics
background is needed—but nevertheless the book is intended mainly
for adults.
3. Weeks, Jeffrey R. The Shape of Space, New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc.,
1985.
A complete yet elementary treatment of the mathematical ideas
introduced in this unit, as well as related ideas such as curvature.
While no specific mathematics background is required, the reader
should be comfortable with the mathematical way of thinking and
should enjoy solving puzzles. Strong high school mathematics
students can read this book on their own, but few middle school
students could.

Exploring the Shape of Space xiii

Objectives
• To know how large the visible
universe is and how many stars
and galaxies it contains but to
realize that, in spite of its
enormous size, the universe
might not be infinite.
• To understand how a 2-dimensionai
universe would differ from our
3-dimensional one.

Materials
Transparency 1: How Big Is
the Universe? (replaces
Activity 1) Outline
Activity 1: How Big Is the Location: classroom
Universe? (one per group) 20 minutes: How Big Is the
Homework 1: Fiatland Universe? (whole class Vocabulary
discussion; Activity 1) infinite
30 minutes: Flatland (whole finite
class) boundary
2-dimensional
3-dimensional
Teacher Notes

Activities
How Big Is the Universe?
The class discussion about the size of the universe might go
something like this:

How big is the universe?

Let students share their ideas. Eventually, though, all should
realize that the universe is very, very big.
Are stars spread evenly throughout the universe?
No, they are grouped into galaxies. The galaxy we are in is called
the Milky Way.
Guess how many stars a typical galaxy such as our Milky Way
contains.
Students might guess a thousand.
More than that—guess again!
Let students keep guessing until they reach the correct answer of
about a hundred billion (not million!) stars.
Guess how many galaxies are visible in the sky using a telescope.
Let students keep guessing until they reach the correct answer of
about a hundred billion galaxies.
You can have students complete Activity 1 in small groups. They can
use their own paper, so one copy of the activity is enough for each
group. Alternatively, you can show the questions on the overhead
using Transparency 1 or copy them onto the board. After students
have written their answers, reconvene the class for discussion.
Keep the discussion open and follow your students’ leads. It
sometimes takes patience to arrive at the destination. As words
from the vocabulary list are used, write them on the board. You can
also bring up this argument if your students do not:

An old argument that space must be infinite goes like this: If space
were finite, then it would have some sort of edge or boundary. But
a boundary doesn’t make sense, because what would happen if you
traveled to the boundary of space and stuck your hand through?
People were assuming that if space has no boundary, it must be
infinite. But that’s not true. As we explore the shape of space, we
are going to make model universes that have no boundary but
are finite.
Mathematicians and cosmologists are currently very interested in
such models, because the real universe may be finite. Satellite data
that is to become available in the years 2001 to 2009 may reveal
which model fits the real universe.

2 Fiatland Exploring the Shape of Space

Teacher Notes

What’s a cosmologist?
A scientist who studies the universe. Cosmologist comes from the
Greek word kosmos, meaning universe.
In Lessons 4 and 5, we’ll study 2-dimensional universes
that are finite and have no boundary. When we understand the
main ideas in two dimensions, we’ll go on to construct finite
3-dimensional spaces with no boundary in Lesson 6.
Up-to-date information on cosmology research will be posted at
http://www.keypress.com/space/.

Fiatland
Talking about flatland will help students abstract the concept of
dimension apart from the many other details of everyday life.
Encourage students to create people, planets, and other flatland
images that correspond to our world as closely as possible—but in
two dimensions instead of three! Students have much fun and many
laughs with this exercise.
The chalkboard makes a nice 2-dimensional universe. Can
someone please come to the board and draw on it a 2-dimensional
person—a “flatlander”?
(Reassure the student approaching the board that the drawing
© <•>
doesn’t have to be perfect—it’s just a starting point.)
The most common mistake people make with their first attempt at
drawing a flatlander is placing the eyes on the inside of the head.
This is incorrect because no light can reach the eyes—the skull
and brain block it.
How will the flatlander see another flatlander?
Let students revise the drawing. The eyes should be at one edge
of the head, with access to the outside world, just as we
3-dimensional humans have eyes at the edges of our heads, with
access to the outside world.
The students may also mistakenly draw the mouth on the inside of
the head.
How will the flatlander eat?
More revision is necessary. Just as a human’s 3-dimensional
mouth is an opening through which food enters the body from the
outside, the flatlander’s mouth should be an opening through
which food enters its body from the 2-dimensional world. A
reasonable final attempt at a flatlander head might look
something like the figure shown at right.

Exploring the Shape of Space Flatland 3

Teacher Notes

Emphasize the difference between a true 2-dimensional being and a

2-dimensional image of a 3-dimensional being. Keep the discussion
open and let the students pursue their own ideas. Here are some
questions you can ask:

Where is the flatlander’s skin?

The skin is the 1-dimensional perimeter of the flatlander’s
2-dimensional body, just as our skin is the 2-dimensional surface
of our 3-dimensional bodies. In each case, the skin is the boundary
between the inside and the outside.
How does the flatlander eat and digest food?
One particularly unsettling question is whether the digestive tract
splits a flatlander’s body into two pieces. Various solutions are
possible. Let the students think about it, but don’t worry if they
don’t reach a solution.
vo\c<\no . • Can someone come to the board and draw a 2-dimensional planet?
Please include mountains and oceans.
tofe
The mountains and oceans should be features on the planet’s
1-dimensional circumference, so the drawing will look very
different from a standard picture of Earth.
m«" 1 What goes in the middle of the planet?
oceans If students make an analogy with Earth, they might mention
magma, or core and mantle. t
Could someone please come to the board and draw a close-up view
of a lake between two mountains, a flatlander in a sailboat on the
lake—think carefully about that sail—and a different flatlander
swimming in the lake?
Does the flatlander who is swimming get wet?
Yes, where the curve that is his skin touches the water.
Can he see his friend in the boat?
No, the sail is in the way.

Homework
Distribute Homework 1, due tomorrow.

4 Fiatland Exploring the Shape of Space

Transparency 1

How Bia ts the, Universe,?

1. A typical galaxy contains roughly one hundred

billion stars. Write one hundred billion as a
numeral.

2. Each of the roughly one hundred billion galaxies

visible with the Hubble Space Telescope contains
roughly one hundred billion stars. How many stars
does that make altogether? Write your answer
as a numeral. (How might you write your answer
in words?)

3. Do you think space is infinite or finite? Why?

Exploring the Shape of Space Fiatland 5

Stars are not spread evenly throughout the universe but are
grouped into clumps called galaxies.

1. A typical galaxy contains roughly one hundred billion stars.

Write one hundred billion as a numeral.

Our sun lies in the Milky Way galaxy. All the stars you see at
night are part of the Milky Way. The Andromeda galaxy, which
you can see as a small white smudge in the direction of the
constellation Andromeda, is the only other galaxy visible to the
naked eye. But using the Hubble Space Telescope, we can see
roughly one hundred billion other galaxies.

2. Each of the roughly one hundred billion galaxies visible

with the Hubble Space Telescope contains roughly
one hundred billion stars. How many stars does that
make altogether? Write your answer as a numeral. (How
might you write your answer in words?)

The universe is very, very big. But is it truly infinite? Or might

there be a limit to the number of galaxies and a limit to the
total volume of space? In other words, might space be finite?
The words infinite and finite are antonyms.
/
A universe is infinite if it has unlimited volume.
A universe is finite if it has a limited, measurable volume.

3. Do you think space is infinite or finite? Why?

6 Fiatland Exploring the Shape of Space

Homework 1 Name

PtatUuui
1. Draw a flatlander on the back of this page. Show details
such as eyes, mouth, digestive system, arms, or legs.

2. We humans are 3-dimensional, but we see a 2-dimensional

image of our world, like the image on a movie screen. Draw
an image of a hockey puck first as seen from above and
then as seen from the side.

from above from the side

3. What do flatlanders see? Draw a flatlander first as we

humans see her from outside flatland and then as another
flatlander would see her from within flatland.

our view (from outside flatland) flatlander’s view (from within flatland)

Exploring the Shape of Space Flatland 7

Objectives
ïTÎTi
• To see how a space may be
yet have no boundary.
• To understand the concept of
dimension, and recognize 1-, 2-,
3-dimensional spaces
VW,

\|y/raparound Universe

Materials
Graph paper or plain paper
(one sheet per student)
Transparency 2: Definitions Outline
(optional) Location: classroom
Activity 2a: Coordinates 20 minutes: Coordinates
(younger grades only) (Activity 2a, younger grades Vocabulary
Activity 2b: Dimensions only) infinite
Activity 2c: Finite/Infinite, 10 minutes: Dimensions finite
Boundary/No Boundary (Activity 2b, groups) boundary
Homework 2: Wraparound 10 minutes: Wraparound 1-dimensional
Universe Universe (whole class)
2-dimensional
5 minutes: Lineland (whole
class) 3-dimensional

20 minutes: Finite/Infinite,
Boundary/No Boundary
(Activity 2c; groups)
Teacher Notes

Activities
Coordinates
If your students have not studied coordinates, they will need
experience in using two numbers (or a number and a letter) to
locate a point on a surface. Students can identify regions of the
map from the numbers and letters on the sides, or they can do
Activity 2a and use latitude and longitude to locate cities on the
globe’s surface. To complete Question 3 on Activity 2a, the class
needs to agree ahead of time on what units to use. Meters, feet,
and paces are all good possibilities.

Dimensions
Have students complete Activity 2b in small groups. When they
reconvene to discuss their answers, you might want to use
Transparency 2. You can also present additional information about
color vision.

The 3-dimensionality of color is a property of the human eye, not

the external world. Our eyes have three types of color receptors,
called cones. Each of the three types of cones responds to light of
certain wavelengths. The intensity with which the three types of
cones are stimulated determines the subjective color we perceive.
During the night, however, our eyes use different receptors, called I
rods. Unlike cones, rods respond well to low levels of light. But we
have only one type of rod, not three, so our night vision sees only
a 1-dimensional set of colors, which we perceive as varying shades
of gray.
Here are some questions to get students thinking:

Super Bonus Question 1: Some individuals lack the gene

responsible for one of the three types of cones. How does this
affect the set of colors they see?
Such individuals have only two types of cones, and therefore they
see only a 2-dimensional set of colors. In its most common form,
this results in red-green color blindness. Such individuals can
specify any color they perceive by using only two numbers, for
example, the numbers representing the intensities of red light and
blue light.
Super Bonus Question 2: New World monkeys and many species of
birds—budgerigar, canary, zebra finch, mallard duck, pigeon—have
four types of cones. How does this affect their color vision?
These birds and monkeys see a 4-dimensional set of colors. In other
words, they see more colors than we do. Two colored lights that look
♦

10 Wraparound Universe Exploring the Shape of Space

Teacher Notes

identical to humans can look very different to these birds and

monkeys. We cannot hope to imagine their subjective impression of
this 4-dimensional set of colors, because the “extra” colors do not
correspond to anything we experience. (Similarly, a person with
red-green color blindness cannot hope to imagine the colors people
with trichromatic vision see. Indeed, we cannot be sure that
different people with trichromatic vision have the same subjective
impression of the colors they see, even though they always agree
about whether or not two colors are the same.)
Imagine the rich artistic possibilities open to a civilization with
4-dimensional color vision!
Wraparound Universe
Give each student a sheet of graph paper, and ask him or her to
draw several flatlanders. (Plain white paper will also do, but graph
paper better suggests coordinates and dimension.)
How many numbers are required to locate a point on the paper?
Two.
How many dimensions does the surface of the paper have?
It is 2-dimensional.
Challenge the students to use their paper to construct a universe in
which the flatlanders can travel in a straight line and return to
their starting point. Remember, it sometimes takes patience to let
students arrive at an answer. Eventually, someone should suggest
wrapping the paper around to make a cylinder.
How many numbers are required to locate a point on the surface
of the cylinder?
Two.
How many dimensions does this cylindrical universe have?
It is 2-dimensional. Indeed, all flatlander universes must be
2-dimensional.

Lineland
Our universe is 3-dimensional, and fiatland is 2-dimensional. What
might a 1-dimensional space be?
A line.
Could someone please come to the board and draw some
linelanders?

Terry Robin Shawn Pat

Exploring the Shape of Space Wraparound Universe 11

Teacher Notes

Linelanders should be a part of the line. Students might

incorrectly draw a flatlander walking on the line, the way a
tightrope walker walks on a rope. If so, remind them that the
linelanders should be 1-dimensional and should live entirely
within their 1-dimensional universe.
What shall we name the linelanders?
Students might suggest only boys’ names for the linelanders. If so,
encourage them to suggest girls’ names as well. Perhaps they will
think of names that could be either.
Which linelanders can Robin visit?
Only Terry and Shawn.
Can Robin reach Pat?
No. Robin cannot leave the line. The line is the whole universe.

Finite/Infinite, Boundary/No Boundary

The concepts of finite and infinite, introduced in Lesson 1, are
reviewed at the top of the Activity 2c worksheet. They also appear
on the optional transparency. These terms apply in all dimensions.
A universe is finite if it has a limited, measurable
length/area/volume.
A universe is infinite if it has unlimited length/area/volume.
The concept of a boundary is something different:
A boundary is an edge of space. A traveler who reaches a
boundary can go no farther.
As students work in small groups to complete Activity 2c, they
may be surprised to realize that the finite/infinite distinction is
completely independent of the boundary/no boundary distinction.
When student groups are finished, reconvene to discuss their
answers.

Homework
Distribute Homework 2, due tomorrow.

12 Wraparound Universe Exploring the Shape of Space

Transparency 2

Definitions

1 -dimensional Only one number is required to

specify a location; has length but
no area.

2-dimensional Two numbers are required to

specify a location; has area but
no volume.

3-dimensional Three numbers are required to

specify a location; has volume.

boundary An edge of space. A traveler who

reaches a boundary can go no
farther.

finite Has a limited, measurable

length/area/volume.

infinite Has unlimited length/area/volume.

Exploring the Shape of Space Wraparound Universe 13

Coordinates
1. Use a globe or world map to locate the major cities whose
latitude and longitude are given in the table.

Latitude Longitude City

23°30' S 46°40' W Sâo Paulo, Brazil

64°10'N 21°50'W

1°20'S 36°50'E

22°30'N 88°30'E

21°20'N 157°50'W

52°20'N 4°50'E

2. What are the latitude and longitude of your own home

town?

Latitude Longitude City

3. Hide a small object somewhere in your classroom. Write

down the following.

a. Its distance from the front wall of the classroom.

b. Its distance from the left wall of the classroom.

c. Its height above the floor.

d. A brief description of the object (such as “red pencil”).

After everyone has hidden an object, exchange papers at

random and try to find someone else’s hidden treasure. If
all goes well, the three numbers you wrote down will lead
your classmate exactly to your treasure’s hiding place.
When the game is over, please return your classmate’s
treasure and clue sheet.

14 Wraparound Universe Exploring the Shape of Space

©2001 Key Curriculum Press
Activity 2a (continued) Name
1
I
I
I Bonus Problem
Suppose you were at 13° S latitude, 79° W longitude.
a. What major city would be nearest to you?

b. What major city would be farthest away?

* * % % *

Exploring the Shape of Space Wraparound Universe 15

Dimensions
1. How would you specify the position of an airplane in
Earth’s atmosphere? How many numbers are required?

2. How would you specify the position of a sailboat on the

ocean? How many numbers are required?

3. How would you specify the position of a train traveling

along the rail line from Toronto to Montreal? How many
numbers are required?

Earth’s atmosphere is 3-dimensional because three numbers are

required to specify a location.
The surface of the ocean is 2-dimensional because two numbers are
required to specify a location.
A line or curve is 1-dimensional because only one number is
required to specify a location.

4. State whether each of the following is 3-dimensional,

2-dimensional, or 1-dimensional by deciding how many
numbers are required to specify a point.

a. Your desktop

b. A straight line

c. The circumference of a circle

d. The inside of a circle

e. The surface of the moon

f. The inside of the moon

g- The surface of a doughnut

16 Wraparound Universe Exploring the Shape of Space

I
! h. The surface of your skin
i. The air inside your classroom
j. A movie screen
k. The milk in a milk carton

Bonus Problems
1. How many numbers are required to specify the exact time
on a given day? Is time 3-dimensional, 2-dimensional, or
1-dimensional?

2. All colors may be obtained by mixing red, green, and blue

light. How many numbers are required to exactly specify a
color? Is the set of all colors 3-dimensional, 2-dimensional,
or 1-dimensional?

Exploring the Shape of Space Wraparound Universe 17

Finite/Infinite, Boundary/No Boundary

The concepts of finite and infinite apply in all dimensions.

A universe is finite if it has a limited, measurable length/area/volume.

A universe is infinite if it has unlimited length/area/volume.

The concept of a boundary also applies in all dimensions, but it

is different from the concept of finite/infinite.

A boundary is an edge of space. A traveler who reaches a boundary

can go no farther.

1. Here are four 1-dimensional universes:

» «
line segment with two endpoints

<- >
infinite line
circumference
> of circle
ray

a. Estimate the length (or circumference) of each universe

in centimeters. If the length is infinite, write cm.”

b. For each universe that has a boundary, color the

boundary points blue.

c. Draw each universe in its correct place in the table below.

With boundary Without boundary

Finite

Infinite

18 Wraparound Universe Exploring the Shape of Space

2. Here are four 2-dimensional universes:

surface of sphere interior of disk

♦
infinite plane half-infinite plane
with edge
a. Estimate the surface area of each universe in square
centimeters. If the area is infinite, write cm2.”

b. For each universe that has a boundary, color the

boundary line or curve blue.
c. Draw each universe in its correct place in the table below.
With boundary Without boundary

Finite

Infinite

Bonus ProbLeuv
Make a table like the one in Question 2. Invent a 3-dimensional
universe for each place in the table. (Don’t worry if you find one
case much harder than the other three. We’ll see examples of
it later.)

Exploring the Shape of Space Wraparound Universe 19

1. Match each word on the left with its definition on the right,
finite One number specifies a point.
infinite Has a definite, limited
length/area/volume.
boundary
Three numbers specify a point.
1-dimensional
Has unlimited
2-dimensional
length/area/volume.
3-dimensional
Two numbers specify a point.
Edge or border.

2. Match each dimension on the left with its description on

the right.
1-dimensional Has area but no volume.
2-dimensional Has volume.
3-dimensional Has length but no area.

3. The surface of a sphere is a possible universe for

flatlanders.
a. Is the surface 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional?
(Hint: How many numbers are required to specify a
point on the sphere’s surface? Ignore the space inside
the sphere.)
b. Is the surface finite or infinite?
c. Does the surface have a boundary?

4. Draw a 2-dimensional universe for flatlanders that is

infinite and has a boundary.

20 Wraparound Universe Exploring the Shape of Space

1
? 1 Bonus Problem
Draw a linelander.

Where is the linelander’s skin?

How many dimensions does the linelander’s skin have?

Exploring the Shape of Space Wraparound Universe 21

Objectives
• To understand the relationship "
between a paper cylinder and its
abstractly defined gluing diagram.
• To understand the abstractly
defined cylinder by finding winning
in cylindrical tic-tac-toe.

Cylindrical Tic_Tac-Toe

Materials
White paper cut into 6 almost-
square pieces per sheet (1 or
2 squares per student) Outline
Scissors (1 pair for each Location: classroom
student or group)
10 minutes: Tic-Tac-Toe on
Tape (several rolls) Paper Cylinders (whole class Vocabulary
Transparency 3: Tic-Tac-Toe and pairs) cylinder
(optional) 10 minutes: Gluing Diagrams gluing diagram
Activity 3a: Tic-Tac-Toe on a (whole class) equivalent
Cylinder 10 minutes: Tic-Tac-Toe on a translation
Activity 3b: Equivalent Games Cylinder (Activity 3a, groups)
rotation
Homework 3: Cylindrical 20 minutes: Equivalent Games
(whole class; Activity 3b, reflection
Tic-Tac-Toe
groups)
Teacher Notes

Activities «

Tlc-Tac-Toe on Paper Cylinders

Show students how to set up a cylindrical tic-tac-toe board. For each
game, draw a 3-by-3 tic-tac-toe board on a small paper square, and cm
tape it to make a cylinder.
Have students choose partners to play several games of tic-tac-toe
on a cylinder using the small paper squares.
o
After the students have played several games, draw the first
X o tic-tac-toe board shown at left on a full-size piece of paper.
o X
For the cylindrical tic-tac-toe game I drew, has any player
Xo already won?
Ask a volunteer to tape the square to make a cylinder, and ask
Xo another volunteer to cut it open to show the three-in-a-row more
oX clearly (as shown in the second game at left).
o X
Gluing Diagrams
Is the cylindrical tic-tac-toe board 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional?
It’s 2-dimensional, because two numbers specify a point.
The cylinder is a universe for 2-dimensional flatlanders, even
though we constructed it in 3-dimensional space. Bending a surface
in space is no problem for us, but when we study 3-dimensional
universes later in the unit, we don’t want to have to bend them in
4-dimensional space! It is possible to visualize 4-dimensional space,
but it won’t be necessary. Instead, let’s play cylindrical tic-tac-toe
using only two dimensions for our drawing. That way, when we get
to 3-dimensional universes later on, we’ll know how to draw them
using only three dimensions for our drawings.
(Note: Students interested in 4-dimensional space may be directed
to Edwin Abbott’s classic, Fiatland. In our 3-dimensional world,
time is a fourth dimension, but Abbott’s book presents a fourth
spatial dimension, in which case time becomes a fifth dimension.)
Draw a tic-tac-toe board on the chalkboard, marking the left and
right sides with arrows to indicate that those edges are (abstractly)
i glued together to make a gluing diagram of a cylinder.
(Alternatively, show the first figure on Transparency 3.)
Draw two Xs as shown at left.
X
X i

24 Cylindrical Tic-Tac-Toe Exploring the Shape of Space

Teacher Notes

Where does X move to win?

X
Let the students play a couple of games of cylindrical tic-tac-toe on
this board as a class. Divide the class into two teams. Have each
X L

team send a representative to the board to mark the team’s moves.

The representative does not select the move but merely records the
team’s consensus.

Tic-Tac-Toe on a Cylinder
Have students complete Activity 3a. As they work, circulate around
the room monitoring their progress, asking questions, and helping
with any questions the students raise.

Equivalent Games
Draw the diagrams below on the chalkboard (or display
Transparency 3). When most of the students have finished Activity
3a, redirect the class’s attention to the chalkboard.

o X X o X o
X X X iX X X
o i
o i
o. o i

oX o X oX
Two games are considered equivalent if they yield the same game
on a cylinder. Which of these cylindrical tic-tac-toe games are
equivalent?
Abstract approach. For each column in one game, see whether
there is an identical column in any of the other games. As it
turns out, the first game has the same columns as the fourth game,
so they will be identical when rolled into a cylinder. Similarly, the
second and third games have the same columns, although one is
upside down relative to the other.

a b c 1 2 3 b c a

o X X o X o
X o i X X o i X X o i X o i

oX o X
2 1 3
oX
Concrete approach. If the students are in doubt, ask volunteers
to draw the games onto sheets of paper and tape them into
cylinders. The students will see that the first and last games yield
the same game on a cylinder and are therefore equivalent. The two
middle games are also equivalent, even though the cylinder for one
% must be turned upside down to match the other.

Exploring the Shape of Space Cylindrical Tic-Tac-Toe 25

Teacher Notes

Have students complete Activity 3b while you circulate about the

room asking and answering questions. I
Especially in the younger middle school grades, it’s not so important
that students be able to find all equivalent games systematically.
Eager students, however, may want to do so. Many middle school
students happily find equivalent games, using translations,
reflections, and rotations in a purely informal and intuitive way.
With older students, you might want to develop the translations,
reflections, and rotations more systematically by writing the terms
on the board and discussing examples. For example, in Question 2
on the activity sheet, you may ask students to label each equivalent
game as one of the following:
• equivalent by translation
• equivalent by horizontal reflection (possibly followed by a
translation)
• equivalent by vertical reflection (possibly followed by a
translation)
• equivalent by rotation (possibly followed by a translation)
The purpose of this exercise is to get students thinking about
equivalent games, with the ultimate goal that, when they see a
gluing diagram, they understand that it represents a cylinder and
that the precise location of the cut is unimportant. There are many
approaches, and students should be encouraged to develop their
own ideas. If they get stuck, here are some simple approaches to
Question 2:
• Approach 1. Label the columns of the original game a, b, and c.
How can these labels be rearranged in the equivalent games?
There are 3! equals 6 ways to arrange them across the top,
namely, abc, acb, bac, bca, cab, and cba, and the same 6 ways to
arrange them across the bottom. This gives all 2 times 6 equals
12 possibilities.
• Approach 2. The three Os form an L shape.
Consider the O in the central square of the original game. Which
squares could it go to?
Any of the three squares in the middle row.
Once the central O has found a home, which squares could the O
below it go to?
It must go to a square above or below the central O’s new home.

26 Cylindrical Tic-Tac-Toe Exploring the Shape of Space

Teacher Notes

Once those first two Os have found their homes, which squares
could the remaining O go to?
It must go to a square to the left or right of the second Os new
home.
This gives all 3 times 2 times 2 equals 12 possibilities.
• Approach 3. Older students familiar with translations and
reflections may classify the equivalent games as shown in the
answer key.

Homework
Distribute Homework 3, due tomorrow.

Exploring the Shape of Space Cylindrical Tic-Tac-Toe

Transparency 3

Tic- Tac- Toc

O X X
X Ok iX X Ok
o X o
o X o
iX X Ok iX o
X o X
Cylindrical Tic-Tac-Toe Exploring the Shape of Space
©2001 Key Curriculum Press
Activity 3a Name

*
Tlo- Too- Too ore to Cylinder

o o
X
oxX
X o
The small arrows on the gluing
diagram mean the left and
right sides get glued . . . ... to form a cylinder.

1. In each of the following cylindrical tic-tac-toe games, decide

whether one of the players has already won. If so, draw a
line through the three-in-a-row.

o X oo oXo X o
o X Xi o Xi Xi oX i
X o X o X oX
2. Play a few games of cylindrical tic-tac-toe with a friend.

i i i i

3. In each of the following cylindrical tic-tac-toe games, mark

X’s best move. If X wins on this move, draw a line through
the three-in-a-row.

O O X o X X o oo
X i iO X Xi
X o X

Exploring the Shape of Space Cylindrical Tic-Tac-Toe 29

ns
o o o
iO X X X X
o X.
X o o X
Even though these two games . . . they give identical
look different,.. . games on a cylinder.

There are two ways to verify that the games above are
equivalent.

Method 1. Cut a sheet of plain paper into six small squares.

Copy each game onto a small square, roll it into a cylinder,
and tape it. The two games shown above become identical
on cylinders.
a b c b
Method 2. Label the columns of one game and
check whether the other game contains the same o o
columns, but in a different order. o X Xi X o Xi
X o o X
1. Which of the following cylindrical tic-tac-toe games are
equivalent? In other words, if you taped each square’s left
and right sides together, which ones would give you the
same game on a cylinder? You may use either method
described above or a method of your own. Each game is
equivalent to at least one other game.

oX X o oo
iX
X oo o o
X. X i X Ch i Xi X o Xi
oXo X oo X X o X
2. On the back of this page, draw all cylindrical tic-tac-toe
games equivalent to the one below.

X X
oX
oo

30 Cylindrical Tic-Tac-Toe Exploring the Shape of Space

•• <
Cylindrical Tio-Tao-Toe^

1. Mark X’s winning move in each of the following

cylindrical tic-tac-toe games, and draw a line through
the three-in-a-row.

o X o
i
o X oi X CK
X o oX X X o X
2. Which of the following cylindrical tic-tac-toe games are
equivalent? There are more than two!

X X X X o Xi o i
oo i
o o i
oo X oo
o X X o X X X X
You may choose from (at least) two approaches to this
problem. The first approach is to draw the games on pieces
of paper, tape them into cylinders, and see which games are
the same. The second approach is to label the columns of
one game and look for matching columns in the other
games.

Bonus ProbLwc
In traditional tic-tac-toe, two good players will always play to a
draw. Is that also true in cylindrical tic-tac-toe? On the back of
this page explain why or why not.

Sujzer Bonus ProbLenv

In cylindrical tic-tac-toe, can two players cooperate to play to a
draw? On the back of this page, give an example of a game that
ends in a draw or explain why this can’t happen.

Exploring the Shape of Space Cylindrical Tic-Tac-Toe 31

•JiTf-
I
lililí

Games

Materials
Computers with Java-capable
Web browsers (one for every
two students) Outline
Computer projection system Location: computer lab
(optional)
5 minutes: Introduction to the
Torus Games Web pages (on Torus (whole class) Vocabulary
CD-ROM and available torus
30+ minutes: Torus Games
online)
(pairs or small groups)
Transparency 4: Torus
Introduction (optional)
Homework 4: Torus Games
Teacher Notes

Activities «

Introduction to the Torus

This quick introduction presents the torus and the game software. It
is best to work together as a class, either using a projection system
if your computer lab has one, or gathering the students around a
single monitor if they can all see it clearly. If this is not possible, you
can display Transparency 4 as you discuss the behavior of objects in
the torus.
Begin on the main page (TorusGames/index.html).

Yesterday we played tic-tac-toe on a cylinder. Today we are going

to use the computers to play several games on a new surface.
Click to the Introduction. Grab the heart with the mouse.
What do you think will happen when I drag the heart past the
right edge of the square?
It comes back at the left.
What will happen when I drag the grapes past the top of the
square?
t They come back at the bottom.
This space is called a torus. It’s like a cylinder both horizontally
and vertically.
You can illustrate this comment by bending a sheet of paper to form
first a vertical cylinder, then a horizontal cylinder, as you speak.
You can scroll the whole board by dragging with the right mouse
button (Windows) or with the Command key held down
(Macintosh).
Scroll the whole board.
How many dimensions does the torus have?
It’s 2-dimensional. Two numbers specify a point.
Is the torus finite or infinite?
It’s finite. It has a limited, measurable area, and it contains only
four objects: the heart, the grapes, the flower, and the ladybug. (For
clarity the flower and ladybug are suppressed from the above
figure and Transparency 4.)
What’s its approximate area, in square centimeters?
Answers will vary depending on the projection method. On an
ordinary computer monitor the game might be only 10 cm by
10 cm, with an area of 100 cm2. With a projection system, the
game could be as large as 1 m by 1 m, with an area of 1 m2 or
10,000 cm2.

34 Torus Games Exploring the Shape of Space

■

Teacher Notes

Does it have a boundary?

No. Flatlanders living in it could travel in any direction they
wanted and never hit an edge.
That’s right. A torus is a 2-dimensional finite shape that has no
boundary. It is different from a cylinder because a cylinder does
have a boundary.
Return to the main page, and click to tic-tac-toe. With the whole
class, play one quick game against the computer. When appropriate,
ask students why the computer is making the moves it is (for
example, to block a spot where the class might win). Show students
how to use the game’s menu to
human vs. computer
switch from human vs. computer to
human vs. human mode.
Torus Games
osnnap
Have students choose partners and play the games.
You may play the six games—tic-tac-toe, maze, crossword, word
search, jigsaw puzzle, and chess—in any order. Please play each of
the first five games at least once so you’ll be prepared for the
homework. Try the torus chess, too, if you know how to play
regular chess.
For educational as well as social reasons, it’s best for the students to
work in pairs or small groups. For the tic-tac-toe and chess games,
encourage them to try human vs. human as well as human vs.
computer mode. However, tell them not to switch from torus mode to
Klein bottle mode—the Klein bottle is saved for Lesson 8.
As the students play the games, circulate about the room answering
their questions and congratulating them for their successes. If they
get stuck, ask questions to get them thinking without giving away
the answers. For example, if students are stuck in a maze, suggest
they try working backward from the cheese to the mouse. Scrolling
the board also helps.

Homework
Distribute Homework 4, due tomorrow.

Students May Wonder, Where’s the Doughnut?

The torus explored in this lesson, the square with opposite sides
glued, is a flat torus. This lesson intentionally omits the doughnut-
surface realization of a torus in favor of the flat torus, for two
reasons:
• The flat torus leads easily to the 3-dimensional torus universe in
Lesson 6.

Exploring the Shape of Space Torus Games 35

Teacher Notes

• Astronomical observations suggest that the real universe, if it is a

torus, is a flat torus.
The doughnut surface and the flat torus are topologically equivalent
(see Homework 5, Question 4), but the doughnut surface has
varying curvature, while the flat torus has constant zero curvature
like the ordinary Euclidean plane. Students will see the doughnut
surface when they view the video in Lesson 6.

Torus Games Exploring the Shape of Space

Transparency 4

Toyas Introduction,
\

S& ii'-

t
human vs, computer |

^i_hJ *

Exploring the Shape of Space Torus Games 37

Torus (joutes
•1
1. Draw a path leading the mouse to the
cheese in the torus maze at right.

2. Circle the word torus in the torus word c r u z s m

search puzzle at right.
a h s a e
P
o t 0 p i e

1 s a a 1 t

0 t 1 c o u

x r a e r r

3. a. Is a torus finite or infinite?

b. Does a torus have a boundary?

c. Is a torus 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional?

38 Torus Games Exploring the Shape of Space

4. a. Use this sheet of paper to represent a torus. The ladybug

crawling northeast across the top of the page will return
at the bottom of the page. To see how, roll the page into a
cylinder (so the top and bottom edges meet), and extend
the ladybug’s path forward a few centimeters. Now unroll
the cylinder and look at where the ladybug’s path enters
the bottom of the page. What direction is she heading?

b. The ladybug in the torus at right walks in a T T

I
straight line until she returns to her starting I I
J 1 L
point. Draw her path. I
I I
I
--------1----------1.---------i--------
I I
I I
-- — -------y---------,--------
I
I
I I

Bonus Problems
1. Draw the path of a ladybug who walks in a straight line
until she returns to her starting point if she always walks
as follows.
i i i i
i i i i i i
------ (- i-------1-—i-------1-— -+—i------ i-—i------ i-
i I i
IL _L___L IL
I
I I /\ I I
-----1------- \----- ------ 1-------------------- 1------- t—
I I
J.__ ¿-1 IL L_/lLIL
I I
I I
------- f------ 1-------- \------1-------- (■-- f---- 1------ h------1------ \------
I I I I I
1 1 1 1 1

a. 2 units northward for b. 3 units northward for

every 1 unit eastward every 2 units eastward

2. Make your own maze, crossword puzzle, or word search

puzzle on a torus, and challenge a classmate to solve it. You
can design your puzzle with pencil and paper, or, if you have
access to a computer, you can play the Torus Games online
at http://www.keypress.com/space/ and use the built-in Crossword
Puzzle Editor or Word Search Editor.

Exploring the Shape of Space Torus Games 39

I
o V-:- '
Objectives
• To understand the fundamental
domain and tiling views, and how
they complement each other.
• To be able to tell when two
seemingly different fundamental
domains represent views of the

ty\ore Torus Games

Materials
Computers with Java-capable
Web browsers
Computer projection system Outline
(optional) Location: computer lab
Torus Games Web pages (on 5 minutes: Tiling View and
CD-ROM and available online) Fundamental Domain (whole Vocabulary
Transparency 5: Tiling View class) fundamental domain
Introduction (optional) 30+ minutes: Games on a Torus tiling view
Activity 5: Games on a Torus (Activity 5; pairs or groups)
Homework 5: More Torus
Games
Teacher Notes

Activities
Tiling View and Fundamental Domain
Ask students to direct their attention to the projection system (if
you have one), gather around your monitor (if they all fit), or
otherwise just follow along using their own computers as you show
Transparency 5.
From the main page (TorusGames/index.html), click to the
Introduction. Grab the ladybug and move it to the center of the
square (or show the first figure on the transparency).
What does the ladybug see when she looks forward?
I Her line of sight wraps around the torus and she sees her own
backside (second figure on the transparency).
That’s right. The ladybug has the illusion of seeing another copy of
Î herself, one unit ahead.
Point to where that image would appear to be
(third figure).
What does the ladybug see when she looks to
the right? i i

Her line of sight wraps around, and she has the

illusion of seeing another copy of herself, one
unit to the right (fourth figure).

What does the ladybug see along a 45° line?

Another image of herself (fifth j
figure).
You can have the computer draw
the repeating images the ladybug j i

sees. i J
Use the menu to switch from
fundamental domain view to tiling
view (last figure).

I* fund-ament-aI domain
tiling
TP*
42 More Torus Games Exploring the Shape of Space
Teacher Notes

What will happen when we move the heart?

All its images move simultaneously.
The ladybug has the illusion of seeing an infinite universe, as we
see in the tiling view, but really there is only one heart, as we see
when we look at the fundamental domain. The ladybug sees many
images of the heart because her line of sight can reach it in many
different directions.
Is it possible to see more than one heart if we look only in the
fundamental domain?
No. Everything in the fundamental domain appears once.
The fundamental domain and tiling views are complementary
views of the torus:
• The fundamental domain view shows correctly that the torus is
finite, but incorrectly suggests that it has a boundary.
• The tiling view shows correctly that the torus has no boundary,
but incorrectly suggests that it’s infinite.

To understand the torus fully, try to keep both views in your head
at once so you can see that the torus is finite yet has no boundary.
(Note: The crossword puzzle, jigsaw puzzle, and chess game offer
the tiling view, but the tic-tac-toe, maze, and word search do not,
because the tiling view makes those games too easy.)

Games on a Torus
Distribute Activity 5 and circulate around the room as the students
work on it, monitoring their progress and asking helpful questions
as necessary. When students finish the activity sheet, they may play
freely with the games until the end of the period.

Homework
Distribute Homework 5, due tomorrow.

Exploring the Shape of Space More Torus Games

Transparency 5

Tiling View- Introduction

r
Ï
• • • • • •
• •• • •• • .*

t
• •

• • • • • • • •
• •• • •• • .* • .*

bf
• • • •
• .*

I* fundamental domain j
tiling

44 More Torus Games Exploring the Shape of Space

0#
i ^ L
g¿mees ocu cu Torus
1. Open the first torus
crossword puzzle, and type
in the two words shown at
right. Switch from the
fundamental domain view to
the tiling view, and sketch
what you see.

2. Extend the drawing of the tic-tac-toe

game shown at right from fundamental
domain view to tiling view. (The tic-tac-
toe computer game doesn’t offer tiling
view, so do this by hand.)
o
X X o
o X

3. Assemble the first torus jigsaw puzzle—the one with the

colored flowers.
a. Imagine that our ladybug friend begins at the red flower
and climbs up the vine. Which other flowers does she
pass on that same vine? (Hint: It may be helpful to scroll
the picture as you trace along the vine.)
b. How many different vines are there?

Exploring the Shape of Space More Torus Games 45

4. Open the torus tic-tac-toe computer game, switch to

human vs. human mode, and set up the board shown X
at right. X X o
o
a. Using the right mouse button, drag the board one
space to the left and one space up. (If you are using
a Macintosh computer, hold down the Command key
as you drag with the mouse.) Sketch the result in the
empty board at right. These two pictures look different
as pictures on a square, but they are equivalent as
tic-tac-toe games on a torus.
b. What do you get when you rotate the board 180 degrees
about its center? Sketch the result in the empty board
below. (The computer game can’t do this—you must do it
by hand.)

X
i X X
ok i k

o
5. Set up each of the boards below in the tic-tac-toe computer
game, and drag each around with the right mouse button. If
a board is equivalent to the first board in Question 4b,
write “directly equivalent.” If it’s equivalent to the second
board in Question 4b, write “equivalent by rotation.”
Otherwise, write “not equivalent.”

o o iX
o
X k i o X o Xk
X oX X X X

46 More Torus Games Exploring the Shape of Space

Bonus Problems
1. Does the first move matter in torus tic-tac-toe? In other
words, are all first moves equivalent? Explain.

2. If the first player in torus tic-tac-toe takes the upper left

corner, how many nonequivalent moves does the second X
player have to choose from? i

* * % * *

Exploring the Shape of Space More Torus Games 47

More- Torus games «

1
1. Which of the following torus tic-tac-toe games are
equivalent? There are more than two! Remember, in a torus
you may scroll the pieces up and down as well as right and
left. Rotations and reflections are okay too!

X X o X o oXo X
o Xi X oo i
o X oi X i X oo
ooX X X X o X o
2. On this tiling view of a torus picture, mark
a fundamental domain. 3> o&£>
* tAi;0a<f
5 r0-A. O O O
4 4 4 4 :f
]>
» 4C * * 4C * * 4L *

^ ;f 4 ;f * ;f 4 ;f
o # wO * o * -f-

4. - 4. - 4. 4.

3. Make a drawing on a torus. You

may use any subject and any
medium (such as colored pencils,
paints, or crayons). Be creative
and make use of the torus’s
wraparound nature. Use the grid
at right, which shows a central
fundamental domain and its eight
neighbors. You may want to
experiment on scrap paper before
making your final drawing in the
space at right. After you have
decided on a design, draw it in the
central square (the fundamental
domain) and then copy it into the
other squares to make a tiling view.

48 More Torus Games Exploring the Shape of Space

4. If you physically glue a square’s left and right edges, you

get a cylinder. If you then try to glue the top to the bottom,
and the square is made of paper, you get a crumpled mess.
But if the square were made of easily stretchable rubber,
what shape would you get when you glued the top of the
cylinder to the bottom?

Bonus PnobLents

1. Which of the following torus mazes are equivalent?

[ nj ni 1
n n u u T n
i i n
i rz _ i
n
2. For chess players: Show how black can checkmate white in
one move in the torus chess game shown below.

:■
• i
i I I
* 1

Exploring the Shape of Space More Torus Games 49

V
m
Objective
Wit
• To extend the concept of the
2-dimensional torus (a finite,
unbounded universe for
flatlanders) to the 3-dimensional
torus (a finite, unbounded
universe for us).

The 3-Torus
)
mm

Materials
The Shape of Space video
and VCR
Video Guide 1: The Shape of Outline
Space, Part 1 Location: classroom
Transparency 6: The Real 5 minutes: Introduction to the
Universe (replaces 3-Torus (whole class) Vocabulary
Activity 6a) 2-torus
15 minutes: The Shape of Space
Activity 6a: The Real Universe video (first half) 3-torus
Activity 6b: Torus Dimensions 10 minutes: The Real Universe
Homework 6: The 3-Torus (Activity 6a; groups)
Reading: Cosmology 20 minutes: Torus Dimensions
(Activity 6b; groups)
Celestial Map: Locating the
Andromeda Galaxy (optional)
Teacher Notes

Activities »

Introduction to the 3-Torus

Was the torus in yesterday’s computer games a 2-dimensional
universe or a 3-dimensional universe?
Two-dimensional.
How can we apply the idea of the torus to make a 3-dimensional
universe?
Give students some time to think and to explore their ideas. Don’t
be discouraged if they don’t make much progress—this is a hard
question! If they don’t solve the problem on their own, ask this
question:
What geometrical shape is like a square, only 3-dimensional?
A cube.
So, instead of starting with a 2-dimensional square, let’s start with
a 3-dimensional block of space. Imagine the rectangular block of
space defined by the classroom.
Walk to the front of the classroom and point to the wall (or
chalkboard).

If I go out the front wall, where will I come back?

The back wall.
Walk over to a side wall of the classroom.

If I go out this wall, where will I come back?

The opposite wall.
If I fly up through the ceiling, where will I come back?
The floor.
This space is called a 3-dimensional torus, or 3-torus for short. The
torus on which you were playing the computer games yesterday is
called a 2-dimensional torus, or 2-torus for short.
It’s always a good idea to write the new vocabulary words on the
board.
When you look forward in the 3-torus, what do you see?
The class sees another image of itself, viewed from behind.
What do you see looking to the side?
Another image of the class.
When you look up?
The bottoms of our feet.

52 The 3-Torus Exploring the Shape of Space

Teacher Notes

The Shape of Space Video (first half)

Read, display, or give students copies of the video guide questions.
Show the first half of the video The Shape of Space, stopping at the
end of the flight in the 3-torus, at the point where the narrator says
“This isn’t the only possible shape for space.” (If you are omitting
Lessons 7 through 9, you may show the whole animation at this
point.) Discuss the answers to the questions in the video guide, as
well as any other questions or comments the students may have.

The Real Universe

Display Transparency 6 or give students copies of Activity 6a. Have
students break into small groups to discuss the questions and write
answers. When they are done, reconvene the class to compare the
different groups’ ideas.
After students have discussed their ideas, mention that real
experiments are under way to test whether space is a 3-torus:
Scientists have recently found a way to test whether space is a
3-torus. In the years 2001 to 2003, a small NASA satellite will
measure the radiation remaining from the Big Bang; beginning in
about 2007, a European Space Agency satellite will make even
more precise measurements. If the universe is small enough that
we can see the same region of space in two different directions
in the sky, then the radiation arriving from those two directions
will have approximately the same temperature pattern. Such an
observation may tell us whether the real universe is a 3-torus or
whether it has some other shape.
Torus Dimensions
Have students return to their small groups to complete Activity 6b.
The activity will help students gain a deeper understanding of what
a 3-torus universe would be like.

Homework
Distribute Homework 6, due tomorrow. To make a deeper connection
between the 3-torus and the real universe, distribute the reading on
cosmology and the star chart for locating the Andromeda galaxy, and
ask students to answer the reading comprehension questions.

Further Study
Students may do research projects on connections to the real world,
beginning either from the reading and the references cited there or
from the Web. Some sample topics for students’ projects are listed
on the following page.

Exploring the Shape of Space The 3-Torus 53

Teacher Notes

• Sample Topic 1. How have different cultures explained the

universe and its origins? Students could investigate a specific
culture in depth, such as the ancient Chinese, the Babylonians,
the Arabs in the Middle Ages, or a Native American culture; or
they could compare different cultures.
• Sample Topic 2. How did the Europeans’ view of the universe
evolve over the millennia, and what caused the changes?
• Sample Topic 3. What are the goals and methods of current
research on the origin of the universe? Students might begin by
searching the Web for “Microwave Anisotropy Probe” or
checking for leads at http://www.keypress.com/space/.

The 3-Torus Exploring the Shape of Space

r
Video Guide 1

The Skaf>& ofSpaces, Part 1

1. What does the video suggest as three possible

shapes for the flatlanders’ universe?

2. How is the doughnut surface represented in only

two dimensions?

3. Why does the video represent the flatlanders’

universe in only two dimensions? Why not use the
original 3-dimensional pictures?

4. Explain how the flatlanders can see the back of

their own spaceship.

5. Explain how the 3-dimensional humans can see

the back of their own spaceship.

6. Is the humans’ 3-torus universe finite or infinite?

Does it have a boundary?

Exploring the Shape of Space The 3-Torus 55

Tke* Real Universe*

1. Do you think the real universe could be a 3-torus?

2. What experiments could we do to find out?

3. What are some of the practical difficulties with

these experiments?

56 The 3-Torus Exploring the Shape of Space

*•
Tk& Real Uniuwsey :

1. Do you think the real universe could be a 3-torus?

2. What experiments could we do to find out?

3. What are some of the practical difficulties with these

experiments?

Exploring the Shape of Space The 3-Torus 57

Torus Vintensions •Í
1. Some flatlanders live in a 2-torus that is 3 light-years wide
and 6 light-years long.

a. Sketch the tiling view of their universe.

b. In what direction(s) do they see the nearest image(s) of

their solar system?

c. How far away are the nearest images?

d. Draw a dotted line (in the original fundamental domain,

not the tiling view) showing the path the light takes to
reach them.

58 The 3-Torus Exploring the Shape of Space

e. On the seventeenth day of Csir in the year 3509, some

flatlanders look through a telescope at one of the
nearest images. Do they see their solar system as it is
on Csir 17, 3509, or as it was on some other date? If they
see it as it was on some other date, state when and
explain why.

2. Suppose the real universe is a 3-torus made from

a rectangular fundamental domain 150 million
light-years wide, 200 million light-years high,
and 250 million light-years long.
4P
Us
200 250

a. In what direction(s) would we humans see the 150

nearest images of ourselves?

b How far away are our nearest images?

c. Draw a dotted line in the fundamental domain above

showing the path the light takes to reach us.
d. On June 17, 2017, some humans use the Hubble Space
Telescope to take a picture of the nearest image of our
Milky Way galaxy. Do they see the Milky Way as it is on
June 17, 2017? If they see it as it was at some other
time, state when and explain why.

Exploring the Shape of Space The 3-Torus 59

Bonus VrobLeui,
Have you ever been in a barbershop or another room with
mirrors on two opposite walls? What did you see?

How is the image you see in the mirrored room similar to

the image you would see in a 3-torus of similar size? How is
it different?

60 The 3-Torus Exploring the Shape of Space

Tk& 3'Torus
I
1. a. Is the 3-torus finite or infinite?
b. Does the 3-torus have a boundary?
c. Is the 3-torus 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional?

2. Each 2-torus below has a familiar shape shaded on it. Give

the name of each shape. (Hint: Try drawing a tiling view.)

I I

i
Ni ÍM / \

3. Each 3-torus below has a familiar solid drawn in it. Give

the name of each solid.

4. Suppose a 3-torus is made from a rectangular block of space

500 meters by 300 meters by 400 meters. What is the
shortest distance you can travel (in a straight line) to
return to your starting point?

Exploring the Shape of Space The 3-Torus 61

Bonus Problem,
The inhabitants of a 3-torus universe want to construct two
space stations. For efficiency, they want to position the space
stations as far away from each other as possible. Make a sketch
showing where to place them.

Super Bonus Problem>

If you know the Pythagorean theorem, you can use it to solve
this problem. Suppose the 3-torus universe in the preceding
Bonus Problem is made from a rectangular block of space
600 kilometers by 800 kilometers by 2400 kilometers. How
far apart will the two space stations be?

62 The 3-Torus Exploring the Shape of Space

Cosmology
The ancient Greek philosophers had different ideas about space.
Some, led by Leucippus (ca. 480-ca. 420 B.C.) and his student
Democritus (ca. 460-ca. 370 B.C.), believed the universe to be
infinite. Others, led by Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) and his followers,
thought space was a finite ball, with Earth at its center and a
spherical boundary. Aristotle’s view prevailed, and his concept of
a finite universe went largely unquestioned for 2000 years, until
the late sixteenth century.

In the sixteenth century, philosophers took a more scientific

approach to the study of nature. In particular, astronomers
discovered that different stars lay at different distances from
Earth, all well beyond the boundary that Aristotle imagined.
Philosophers rejected Aristotle’s concept of the universe and
instead imagined an infinite universe. Still, the change in thinking
did not come easily: Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was burned at
the stake, apparently because his belief in an infinite universe
with infinitely many inhabited worlds challenged authority.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Georg Riemann ( 1826-1866)

found a way to avoid the idea of an infinite universe without
returning to Aristotle’s idea of a boundary. He proposed the
hypersphere as a model for space. The hypersphere is the surface
of a 4-dimensional ball, just as an ordinary sphere is the
surface of a 3-dimensional ball. Like an ordinary sphere, the
hypersphere is finite and has no troublesome boundary. But
the surface of an ordinary sphere is 2-dimensional, while the
hypersphere’s surface is 3-dimensional.

By the end of the nineteenth century, mathematicians had

discovered a wealth of finite spaces without boundaries. In
1900, German astronomer Karl Schwarzschild (1873-1916)
brought these ideas to the astronomical community. His main
example was the 3-torus, which you study in Lesson 6.

Stars tmd QaLvxies

Each star you see at night is a sun similar to our own. Stars are
not spread evenly throughout space but are clustered into
galaxies. The galaxy we live in is called the Milky Way. We see

Exploring the Shape of Space The 3-Torus 63

nearby stars in the Milky Way as individual stars, but the

remaining stars in the Milky Way are so numerous and so
distant that we see them as a splotchy white band extending
across the sky. The next time you look at the sky on a clear
night, with no moon and away from city lights, you will see the
Milky Way clearly. At first you may think it’s a stray white cloud
stretching across the sky, but it’s not. It’s our galaxy. It got the
name Milky Way because it looks like spilled milk.

The Andromeda galaxy, which you can see as a

small white smudge in the direction of the
constellation Andromeda, is the only other
galaxy visible to the naked eye. Using the
Hubble Space Telescope, we can see roughly one
hundred billion other galaxies. Each, like our
Milky Way, is an island of stars.
Andromeda galaxy
Tke, ExfuutsioHs ofthe. Universe,
In 1915, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) found a geometric
explanation of gravity (his famous Theory of General
Relativity). By 1917, he was surprised to find that his theory
was incompatible with a universe of constant size. In 1922,
Russian mathematician Alexander Friedmann (1888-1925)
realized that Einstein’s theory predicted an expanding universe,
but the common belief in an unchanging universe was so strong
that not even Einstein could accept this conclusion. Neverthe
less, Friedmann’s prediction was quickly confirmed. By 1929,
astronomers observed that light reaching us from distant
galaxies gets “stretched out” along the way, providing evidence
that space itself expands during the billions of years the light
spends traveling from a distant galaxy to us.

To understand how space expands, imagine 3-tori of different

sizes (see the figure at the top of the next page). The penultimate
3-torus represents the modern universe. Because the universe
is expanding, it will be bigger in the future. Conversely, the
universe was smaller in the past. If we look roughly 10 to
15 billion years into the past, the universe had zero size. This
was the time of the Big Bang, the birth of the universe.

64 The 3-Torus Exploring the Shape of Space

Not drawn to scale

%
+
□ ¿¡L
Infant
Big Bang universe Past universe Modern universe Future universe

0 years 100,000 years 1 billion years 10 billion years 20 billion years

The early universe was small but very hot, because its matter
and energy were compressed into a tiny volume. For the first
300,000 years, all of space was filled with a material similar to
the outer layers of the modern sun. The radiation remaining
from the hot, young universe is still observable today. But
because the universe has been expanding, waves that were once
visible light have been stretched out to become microwaves. The
detection of this microwave background radiation in 1965
provided direct evidence in support of the hot Big Bang
explanation for the birth of the universe.

New Understanding
Just as paleontologists use fossils to learn the history of life on
Earth, cosmologists use the microwave background radiation to
learn about the universe. Exactly how old is the universe? Is it
flat or curved? Is it finite or infinite? How did the galaxies form?

In 1998-1999, scientists in the BOOMERANG project (Balloon

Observations of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and
Geophysics) used a balloon to carry microwave detectors to an
altitude of 37 kilometers to measure the microwave background
radiation in a portion of the sky over Antarctica. Their initial
results, released in April 2000, provide tentative evidence that
space is flat, not curved. That is, the universe could be like an
infinite flat plane or it could be like the flat 2-torus on which
you played the computer games in Lessons 4 and 5, but it
cannot be curved like a sphere. More precisely, the real universe
could be an infinite 3-dimensional space, or it could be a finite
3-torus (or any one of the spaces you will see in Lesson 9), but it
cannot be Riemann’s hypersphere unless the hypersphere is so
huge that we are seeing only a tiny portion of it. A tiny portion

Exploring the Shape of Space The 3-Torus 65

of Riemann’s hypersphere would look approxi

mately flat in the same way that a tiny portion
of Earth’s spherical surface—for example, the
surface of the ice on a frozen lake—looks I
I
approximately flat.
c
To confirm BOOMERANG’S observation of an Cl

approximately flat universe, in the spring of -

■a

2001, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space !

Administration) will launch the Microwave I
£

Anisotropy Probe, which will make detailed

Microwave Anisotropy Probe
measurements of the full sky, providing
preliminary data by early 2002 and full data
by 2003.

Resourcesfor Further Study

1. Folger, T. “The Magnificent Mission.” Discover, May 2000.

2. Luminet, J. R, G. Starkman, and J. Weeks. “Is Space

Finite?” Scientific American, April 1999.
«
3. Osserman, R. Poetry of the Universe. New York: Anchor
Books, 1996.

4. Check your library for books on cosmology and its history;

or check science sites on the Internet, such as Amazing
Space (http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/). You can find beautiful
pictures of galaxies at http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr.html
and http://www.smv.org/hastings/galaxy.htm.

5. You can find more information about BOOMERANG

on their Web site at http://www.physics.ucsb.edu/~boomerang.

66 The 3-Torus Exploring the Shape of Space

Questions
1. Did Leucippus and Democritus think space was finite or
infinite?

2. Did Aristotle and his followers think space was finite or

infinite? Did they think space had a boundary?

3. For the 2,000-year period from 400 B.C. to A.D. 1600, how
did most Europeans imagine the universe?

4. What astronomical evidence helped convince sixteenth- and

seventeenth-century philosophers to reject Aristotle’s model
of a finite universe in favor of an infinite one?

5. Who first proposed a universe that is finite yet has no

boundary? Describe the universe he proposed.

6. When Karl Schwarzschild shared with astronomers the

possibility of a finite universe with no boundary, what
example did he use?

7. What is a galaxy?

8. What is the name of the galaxy we live in? Why did it get
this name?

9. How many other galaxies can we see with the naked eye?
How many other galaxies can we see with telescopes?

10. Who applied Einstein’s theory of gravity to arrive at the

surprising prediction that space is expanding?

11. What evidence confirms that space is expanding?

12. Approximately how old is the universe?

13. What was the universe like during its first 300,000 years?

14. The early universe glowed with visible light as bright as

the sun. The light from that period still fills the modern
universe but has been stretched out to become microwaves
instead of visible light. What stretched the light?

15. Fossils are to paleontology as is to

cosmology.

Exploring the Shape of Space The 3-Torus 67

Locating the Andromeda* Qcdaxy «

This star chart shows that for observers at latitudes similar to

that of the continental United States, the Andromeda galaxy is
nearly overhead at 11 P.M. on October 1, at 10 P.M. on November 1
at 8 P.M. on December 1, and at 6 P.M. on January 1.

uozuoH ujoipjo^

aj9dd;aaiWrI„ i J OOBJQ
aOUIJ^.BSJQ r—l
\ y il\

c
g
o

c
Z
'S
I

Cetus Capricornus

Fomalhaut ^
/
0><°^

Southern Horizon

68 The 3-Torus
Exploring the Shape of Space
©2001 Key Curriculum Press
■.

Zf,*

m **
•jr
i [:] >] i,

ip:

Tj >,

%V//

Möbius Strips
» r tr
)

"•4ft

Materials
Plain 8.5-by-l 1-inch or
8.5-by-14-inch paper (one
sheet per student) Outline
Scissors Location: classroom
Tape or glue 20 minutes: Making Möbius
Transparency 7a: Möbius Strips (Activity 7a; groups) Vocabulary
Tic-Tac-Toe (optional) 15 minutes: Möbius Tic-Tac-Toe Möbius strip
Transparency 7b: Tic-Tac-Toe (whole class)
Tiling View (optional) 20 minutes: Möbius Strip Tiling
Activity 7a: Making Möbius View (Activity 7b; groups)
Strips
Activity 7b: Möbius Strip Tiling
View
Homework 7: Möbius Strips
Teacher Notes

Activities
Making Möbius Strips
Have students complete Activity 7a. As they work, circulate about
the room monitoring their progress, asking and answering
questions. As students finish the first part of Question 6, ask them
this bonus question:
How many twists are in the cylinder?
There are two full twists.
Try to reassemble the original Möbius strip from the twisted
cylinder.
This is harder than it looks.

Möbius Tic-Tac-Toe
On the chalkboard, draw a tic-tac-toe board on a virtual Möbius
X strip, and draw two Xs as shown at left. Or use Transparency 7a
X and have a pen ready to mark additional moves.
Where can X move to win?
The students will probably suggest the lower left.
What if that spot is blocked by an O?
/\ The lower right is also a win for X!
N f
A
It might be helpful to put letters or colored dots above and below b c
ol |x each column to show the gluing. \/
/\
Play a game or two of Möbius tic-tac-toe as a class. As with
A
cylindrical tic-tac-toe, divide the class into two teams. Have each
team send a representative to the board to mark the team’s moves. ol lx
The representative does not select the move but merely records the c' b' a'
team’s consensus.
Let students choose partners and play another couple of games on
scrap paper at their seats.
Möbius Strip Tiling View
Have students complete Activity 7b. If possible, check students’
answers to Question 2 before they proceed to Question 3. Moreover,
before students play the games in Question 3 at their seats, you
may first want the class to form two teams and play a game or two

70 Möbius Strips Exploring the Shape of Space

Teacher Notes

in the tiling view on the chalkboard or on Transparency 7b.

Emphasize that whenever a student makes a move, she or he
immediately marks all its images. After students have played a
game or two as a class, let them play the games in Question 3 at
their seats as you circulate about the room checking that they are
correctly marking all the images of each move.

Homework
Distribute Homework 7, due tomorrow.

Exploring the Shape of Space Mobius Strips

Transparency 7a

Möbius Tic-Too- Too %

X
X

72 Möbius Strips Exploring the Shape of Space

Tic-Tac-Tob Tiling View

<3
Exploring the Shape of Space Möbius Strips 73
©2001 Key Curriculum Press
Activity 7a Name

Making Möbius Strips

1. Cut a blank sheet of 8.5-by-11-inch paper into four strips,

i
each about 2 by 11 inches. (8.5-by-14-inch paper is even twist
better.) Make one strip into a cylinder by taping the ends
.
with no twist, as shown at left, and make a second strip
into a Möbius strip by taping the ends together
with a half twist (a twist through 180 degrees), as
shown at right.
Möbius strip

2. Mark an X somewhere on your cylinder. Starting at the X,

draw a line down the center of the strip until you return to
the starting point. Do the same for the Möbius strip. What
happens?

3. The first figure below shows a gluing diagram for a

cylinder. Mark arrows on the second figure to make a
gluing diagram for a Möbius strip.

cylinder Möbius strip

To check your answer, ask yourself what would happen if
you stretched the rectangle around to glue the top and
bottom so that the arrows matched. Would you get a
Möbius strip?

74 Möbius Strips Exploring the Shape of Space

^-1
4. The gluing diagram you created in Question 3 defines a
virtual Möbius strip, which is a little different from a
paper Möbius strip. A paper Möbius strip has a slight
thickness and occupies a small volume; there is a small
separation between its “two” sides. The virtual Möbius
strip has zero thickness; it is truly 2-dimensional. Mark an
X on the virtual Möbius strip at right and trace down the U-"''

centerline; you’ll get back to your starting point after only

one trip around!

5. A cylinder has two boundary circles. How many boundary

circles does a Möbius strip have?
^1

'A B'%

1 - '

(Hint: If an ant starts walking north from point A, what

happens?)

6. a. Take a pair of scissors and cut your paper Möbius strip

down its centerline. What do you get?

b. Take the result from the previous step and cut down its
centerline. What do you get now?

Exploring the Shape of Space Möbius Strips 75

••
Möbius Strips Tiling View-

1. The Möbius strip tiling view is similar to the

•1
2-torus tiling view you explored in the computer /\
games in Lesson 5, but there are two differences.
N/
/K
o o
a. Why does the Möbius strip tiling extend o| jx o *

vertically but not horizontally? fundamental

domain
o X
<3 o
/\

b. In the Möbius strip tiling, why are alternate images o

mirror-reversed? o X
X

*
o V/

o
2. Try a game. tiling view

a. Find a partner and play a game of Möbius tic-tac-toe in

the fundamental domain below.

b. Draw the tiling view of your game in the space at right. {>

O
3. Find a partner and play several games of Möbius tic-tac-toe
directly in the tiling views on the following page. Each time
you make a move, be sure to mark all its images in the
tiling view.

76 Möbius Strips Exploring the Shape of Space

<} O

<0
Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 Game 4

Bonus ProbLenv
You might imagine a Möbius strip to have a “seam” where the
fundamental domain’s top and bottom edges meet. But you can
also imagine a Möbius strip with no seam. Play a few games of
Möbius tic-tac-toe in the tiling view of a seamless Möbius strip. As seam
usual, whenever you make a move, be sure to draw all its images.

Game 5 Game 6 Game 7 Game 8

Exploring the Shape of Space Möbius Strips 77

Möbius Strips
•i
1. Make a long, skinny rectangle (about 2 by 11 inches) as you
did in class. Crease it to divide it into thirds lengthwise,
and then tape the ends to make a Möbius strip.

a. What do you think will happen when you cut your

Möbius strip along the creases? Write your prediction
here.

b. Get a pair of scissors and cut along the creases. Describe

the results of your experiment here, and include your
cut-up Möbius strip when you turn in your homework.

^--1
c. Color in this virtual Möbius strip using a different color
for each of the pieces your paper Möbius strip fell into
when you cut it.

2. The three flatlanders Alex, Bobbie, and Chris line up for a

race on a virtual Möbius strip racetrack. All three run due
north at exactly the same speed. Which flatlander will
return to his or her own starting point first?
tint
A: B : C

78 Möbius Strips Exploring the Shape of Space

Bonus Problem;
Are these two first moves equivalent in Möbius tic-tac-toe?
Explain.

x
x

Exploring the Shape of Space Möbius Strips 79

©2001 Key Curriculum Press
Objectives '
• To develop a deep intuitive
understanding of the Klein bottle as
a finite universe with no boundary.
• To see how the Klein bottle’s
mirror-reversing properties
distinguish it from the torus. ?

• To learn to trace paths accurately

through a Klein bottle universe.

A
Bottl© Games
k

Materials
Computers with Java-capable
Web browsers (one computer
for every two students is Outline
ideal)
Location: computer lab
Torus Games Web pages (on
5 minutes: Introduction (whole
CD-ROM and available online)
class) Vocabulary
Transparency 8: Klein Bottle Klein bottle
30+ minutes: Games on a Klein
Games Introduction
Bottle (Activity 8, and glide reflection axis
(optional)
computer games) (older grades only)
Activity 8: Games on a Klein
Bottle
Homework 8: Klein Bottle
Games
Teacher Notes

Activities
Introduction
This quick introduction presents the Klein bottle. Ask students to
direct their attention to the projection system (if you have one) or
gather around your monitor (if they all fit) or otherwise just follow
along using their own computers as you show Transparency 8.
From the main page (TorusGames/index.html), click to the Introduction
and use the pop-up menu to switch from torus mode to Klein bottle mode.

We’re going to return to the computer games, but today you will
play them in a new space called a Klein bottle. Side to side, the
Klein bottle is like a cylinder.
Grab the flower with the mouse.

What do you think will happen if we drag the flower past the right
edge of the square?
4—4 It will come back from the left.
Grab the grapes with the mouse.

Top to bottom, the Klein bottle is like a Möbius strip. Think back
to the tic-tac-toe games you played on a Möbius strip. If we drag
the grapes straight up, where will they come back?
4—4 They will come back at the bottom right.
Where will the heart come back if we drag it straight up?
At the bottom left.
Position the ladybug to straddle the top and bottom edges, then
slide her side to side so students can see what happens.
Return to the main page and click to the tic-tac-toe game. Use the
menu to the right of the tic-tac-toe board to change from torus mode
to Klein bottle mode and from human vs. computer mode to human vs.
human mode.

human vs. computer

OßBHBUSs • human vs. human
*

Begin a game with the four moves shown at left.

X o Where can X move to win?
X o i
Students will probably suggest the bottom left corner.
Click the New Game button to clear the board.

82 Klein Bottle Games Exploring the Shape of Space

Teacher Notes

What if O got smarter and blocked X?

Make the four moves shown at right.
X
Where can X win now?
X o i
Students will probably suggest the bottom right corner.
Click the New Game button once more.
o
O is continuing to learn from experience, and the game goes
like this.
Make the four moves shown at right.
X
Can X still win?
X i
Send students to their computers to investigate! Don’t give away the
answer. This is the first question in Activity 8. o o
Games on a Klein Bottle
Pass out Activity 8 and circulate about the room answering
students’ questions and congratulating their successes. If they get
stuck, ask questions to get them thinking, without revealing the
answers. Make sure they switch to Klein bottle mode every time they
change games.
If any students have trouble with Question la, suggest that they
slowly scroll the board upward (drag with the right mouse button on
a Windows computer or drag with the Command key held down on a
Macintosh), and the answer will become obvious.
As students finish the activity sheet, they may play freely with the
games for the rest of the class period. Remind them to switch from
torus mode to Klein bottle mode whenever they change games. As in
Lessons 4 and 5, have the students work in pairs, and suggest that
they try both human vs. human mode and human vs. computer mode
for the tic-tac-toe and chess games. As the students play, continue to
circulate about the room asking and answering questions.

Homework
Distribute Homework 8, due tomorrow.

Students May Wonder, Where’s the Bottle?

The torus can be stretched around to become a doughnut surface,
but what about the Klein bottle? Surprisingly, analogous models of a
Klein bottle must have self-intersections! Two such models appear
on the following page. The self-intersections may be removed either
by passing to 4-dimensional space or by passing to a different
3-dimensional space, for example, the half-turn space of Lesson 9.

Exploring the Shape of Space Klein Bottle Games 83

Teacher Notes

However, for the reasons mentioned in the note at the end of

Lesson 4, the flat Klein bottle is most important for cosmology
and is therefore the topic of this lesson’s games and activities.

Traditional Figure-Eight
Klein Bottle Klein Bottle

ii
n Start with abstract a
gluing diagram.
i>

C>Q
a
Glue black arrows.

> White arrows

don’t match up!

Move so that
arrows match up.

Klein bottle

Klein Bottle Games Exploring the Shape of Space

Transparency 8

Klein/ Bottle Çautec Introduction/

torus
• Klein bottle

A
t
t

X O X X
iX i iX uX
o o
o o o
Exploring the Shape of Space Klein Bottle Games 85
©2001 Key Curriculum Press
Activity 8 Name

*
games on a, Klein Bottle

1. Open the tic-tac-toe computer game. Switch from torus

mode to Klein bottle mode and from human vs. computer X
mode to human vs. human mode. Set up the game X
shown at right.
o o
a. Mark the square in the fundamental C>
domain (shown above at the right)
where X can win immediately. a a a ii

b. Draw the tiling view of this game in the <1

grid at right, and put a line through X’s X
winning three-in-a-row. (The tic-tac-toe a iX a ii
computer game won’t draw the tiling
view for you, but you can scroll up,
o o
down, and sideways to deduce what the
a a a ¡i
tiling view should look like.)

2. Open the maze computer game and switch

from torus mode to Klein bottle mode.
a. Find a way to drag the mouse past the top of the board
so he comes back at the bottom. Look at him very closely
before and after. How is he different? (Not just his
position, but his body.) Why does this happen?

b. Drag the mouse past the left side of the board so he

comes back at the right. Look at him very closely before
and after. Has he changed?

c. What is the significance of the dotted green lines?

86 Klein Bottle Games Exploring the Shape of Space

3. Open the jigsaw computer game, switch from torus mode to

Klein bottle mode, and set the puzzle size to 3 x 3. Assemble
the puzzle except for the last piece.
a. Does it look as if the last piece would fit into the
remaining hole? (Don’t put it in yet!)
b. Being careful not to let the piece fall into the hole, slide
it past the top edge of the board so it comes back at the
bottom. Now does it look as if the last piece would fit
into the hole?
c. If you slid the piece past the top of the board 4317 more
times, would it fit into the hole? Explain.

4. Go to the first Klein bottle word search puzzle (the one with
people’s names).
a. The first two letters in the name “Albert” are shown in
the first Klein bottle below. Find the rest of the name in
t the puzzle, and copy it.
b. How would the name “Albert” look on a torus if the
name started at the same place? Write it in the second
puzzle.
c. Why does the name “Albert” change direction (from
southeast to southwest) when it crosses the bottom/top
edge of the Klein bottle fundamental domain?
d. Find the name “Christopher” and copy it in the third
puzzle.
e. What would happen to the name “Christopher” on
a torus?
^1

i- ■i

a a
1 1

Exploring the Shape of Space Klein Bottle Games 87

Klein, Bottle, (jeunes

1. Find all winning locations for X in the

Klein bottle tic-tac-toe game shown here. _k
'r
%

■r

j .
i
(Hint: Draw the tiling view of the game.) -r
y
r
y-

2. Make your own Klein bottle word search .u

X o
puzzle. You may either design it on a piece -r
iX
1 -

of scrap paper or use the word search editor -L

o L
J -

provided with the computer games. The r

-r -
more words you fit in, the better. Include at
least one word of seven letters or more. Be - L.

T
r r r
sure to provide a list of your hidden words. -r y-

-u j .

Word list
1.
2.
-k
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

3. In class you saw that a Klein bottle has two special lines of
symmetry, which are marked with dotted green lines in the
Klein bottle maze game. i
a. When the mouse goes past the top of the board just to
the left of a symmetry line, where does he come back?

b. When the mouse goes past the top of the board just to
the right of a symmetry line, where does he come back?

c. When the mouse goes past the top of the board exactly
on a symmetry line, where does he come back?

88 Klein Bottle Games Exploring the Shape of Space

4. The ladybug in the Klein bottle at right walks in a T T

I I
straight line until she returns to her starting point. I
J J. L
Draw her path. I
I I
(Hint 1: If you are unsure what happens when i------J------ -*•-------*— i
*
the ladybug crosses the top edge of the square, I I
I I
try drawing the tiling view on a separate sheet -------- ----- h------ 1------
of paper.)
I
(Hint 2: Think back to the name “Albert” in the
word search puzzle you did in class.)

Bonus Problems
1. Create your own Klein bottle crossword puzzle. You may
either design it on a piece of paper or use the crossword
puzzle editor provided with the computer games.

2. Mark a fundamental domain on this tiling view of a Klein

bottle jigsaw puzzle.

ZB ~ ((

3. Can a word intersect itself (at right angles) in a Klein

bottle word search? How does the intersection in a 5-by-5
Klein bottle differ from that in a 6-by-6 Klein bottle? Try it!

Exploring the Shape of Space Klein Bottle Games 89

Materials
4 sheets of construction paper,
each a different color
Scissors Outline
Tape or glue Location: classroom
The Shape of Space video and 15 minutes: The Shape of Space
VCR video Vocabulary
Video Guide 2: The Shape of 20 minutes: Mystery Spaces Klein space
Space, Part 2 (Activity 9; groups) quarter-turn space
Computer games in the 3-torus 5 minutes: What Do We See? half-turn space
and other 3-dimensional (whole class)
spaces (optional, available 10 minutes: Tiling View
from www.keypress.com/space/)
5 minutes: The Real Universe
Activity 9: Mystery Spaces
15 minutes: 3-Dimensional
(one activity sheet and one of
Computer Games (optional)
each mystery space per group
plus extra copies of Mystery
Space 1)
Homework 9: More Shapes
for Space
Teacher Notes

Preparation
Before class, get four sheets of construction paper of different colors,
cut each sheet horizontally in half, as shown at left, and reassemble
the pieces to form two identical four-color rectangles like
the one at right. Attach one four-color rectangle to the
center of the front wall of the classroom (on the
chalkboard if necessary), and the other four-color
rectangle to the point directly opposite on the back wall
of the classroom. Position the rectangles so that corresponding
colors are directly opposite each other (blue opposite blue, red
opposite red, and so on) as shown below.

Activities
The Shape of Space Video
Read, display, or distribute copies of the questions on Video Guide 2.
Show the entire eleven-minute video The Shape of Space including
the first half, which was shown in Lesson 6. After showing the video,
discuss the answers to the questions on the video guide and any
questions the students may have. (Following The Shape of Space is a
nine-minute interview with the author. Show the interview on the
day you give the test.)

Mystery Spaces
Have students complete Activity 9, while you circulate about the
room helping them to understand the gluings and to visualize
the spaces.

What Do We See?
Make sure the four-color rectangles are
attached to the centers of the front and
back classroom walls, as explained in
the Preparation section. Ask students to
imagine the space inside the classroom as
a 3-torus and to visualize the repeating
images they would see. The view is similar
to the fly-through scenes in the video and
in any case should be familiar to students
from Lesson 6.

92 More Shapes for Space Exploring the Shape of Space

Teacher Notes

Turn one of the colored sheets over and retape it to the wall as
shown in the diagram. The two side walls, as well as the floor and
ceiling, remain glued as in the 3-torus, that is, straight across.

If a student walks through the front wall at point X, where does X

she come back?
At point X'.
When students look forward in this space, what do they see?
They see themselves from behind.
How does the view differ from the view in the 3-torus?
Here the students see a mirror image of the classroom, reversed
right to left. This is because when their line of sight leaves at the
front right, it returns at the back left, and vice versa.
This space (already introduced in Activity 8) is called the Klein
space, because it is a solid version of the flat Klein bottle the
students played with in Lesson 8. The second space in the video is
also a Klein space. The only difference is that in the video the
spaceship comes back with a top-to-bottom reversal, instead of a
left-to-right reversal as illustrated here.
If time permits, you may continue the discussion of the Klein space
to consider its mirror-reversal effect.

What happens to a person who walks through the front wall at its
exact center?
She comes back at the exact center of the back wall, but with her
left arm where her right arm used to be and vice versa.
What happens if she tries to shake hands with another student?
She holds out her right hand, which looks like a left hand to the
rest of the class. Shaking hands is difficult!
If she then writes her name on the chalkboard—in what she
considers to be the standard left-to-right direction—how will it
appear to the rest of the class?
The rest of the class will perceive it as running right to left.
How will the rest of the class’s writing appear to her?
Also backward.
What if she takes a seeond trip through the front wall?
She gets reversed again, thereby restoring herself to her original
condition.

Exploring the Shape of Space More Shapes for Space 93

Teacher Notes

Tiling View
Challenge the class to construct (a portion of) the tiling view for the
quarter-turn space, using the paper fundamental domains each
group constructed during Activity 9. That is, have the various
groups pool their fundamental domains for the quarter-turn space
and work together as a class to build a single tiling view. (Make
sure that no fundamental domains for other spaces get mixed in
accidentally!) The result will look like a stack of blocks—a “cubical
packing.” Each cube should touch its neighbors so that the markings
match up exactly. If time permits, ask every student to construct
another copy of the quarter-turn space’s fundamental domain so the
class can assemble a much larger portion of the tiling view.
With older students, discuss the tiling view’s structure using the
language of transformations. Neighboring cubes differ by a pure
translation in two of the directions, but in the remaining direction,
neighbors differ by a corkscrew motion—a translation composed
with a 90-degree rotation.
What do inhabitants of the quarter-turn space see when they look
in the direction of the square symbol?
They see another copy of their space, rotated 90 degrees.
What do they see beyond that image of their space?
They see another image of their space, but this one is rotated
180 degrees. It’s upside down!
How far do they have to look to see a right-side-up image of
their space?
To the fourth image. The first image is rotated 90 degrees, the
second is rotated 180 degrees, the third is rotated 270 degrees, and
the fourth is right side up again.

The Real Universe

How could we tell whether the real universe is a 3-torus, a Klein
space, a quarter-turn space, or a half-turn space?
Let students discuss their ideas. They may suggest looking for
repeating patterns in the galaxies, analogous to the repeating
images of the classroom or the paper cubes discussed earlier in the
lesson. The presence of reflections or rotations in the pattern of the
galaxies would give a clue to the shape of the universe.
For up-to-date information on observations of the real universe,
please see http://www.keypress.com/space/.

f
94 More Shapes for Space Exploring the Shape of Space
Teacher Notes

0 3-Dimensional Computer Games

The Web site http://www.keypress.com/space/ offers 3-dimensional
versions of some of the Torus and Klein Bottle Games, along with
suggested classroom activities. You may wish to have students play
the games and complete the activities to deepen their understanding
of the spaces introduced in this lesson.

Homework
Distribute Homework 9, due tomorrow.

Exploring the Shape of Space More Shapes for Space

Video Guide 2

The- Shape, ofSpace,, Part 2 %

The video shows two 3-dimensional universes:

• The 3-torus (all faces glued straight across)

• The Klein space (one pair of faces glued with a flip)

1. Are these spaces finite or infinite?

2. Do they have a boundary?

3. When the passengers in the spaceship look

around, can they tell which of the two spaces
they are traveling in? If so, how?

4. Could the real universe be a 3-torus or a

Klein space?

96 More Shapes for Space Exploring the Shape of Space

Mystery Spaces

Mystery Space 1
Mystery Space 2
Mystery Space 3
Mystery Space 4

Your group should assemble one copy of each of the four

mystery spaces. To assemble each space, cut out the template,
crease along all the fold lines, and tape or glue to assemble a
cube. Make sure the markings appear on the outside. Each cube
is the fundamental domain for a space. Imagine yourself to be a
small person living inside.

1. Each cube’s opposite faces are glued so that the markings

match exactly. Decide which of the four mystery spaces
is a 3-torus, and write “3-torus” in the correct position in
the table above. (Note: Here we mean that opposite faces
are abstractly glued, in the sense that anything leaving
through one face returns from the opposite face. Please
don’t try to attach opposite faces with real glue!)

2. The second half of the video The Shape of Space showed

the Klein space, in which the spaceship came back reversed
top to bottom but not reversed side to side. Decide which
of the four mystery spaces is a Klein space, and write
“Klein space” in the correct position in the table above.

3. The quarter-turn space has two pairs of faces glued straight

across, as in the 3-torus, but the third pair of faces is glued
with a quarter turn so that a traveler passing through that
face comes back to his or her starting point rotated by
90 degrees. Decide which of the four mystery spaces is a
quarter-turn space, and write “quarter-turn space” in the
correct position in the table above.

4. The half-turn space is similar to the quarter-turn space,

except that a traveler passing through the special face comes
back rotated by 180 degrees instead of 90 degrees. Is your
last remaining mystery space a half-turn space? If so, write
“half-turn space” in the remaining position in the table.

Exploring the Shape of Space More Shapes for Space 97

Mystery Sj>cu& 1 %

///Mystery Space

98 More Shapes for Space Exploring the Shape of Space

Mystery Space, 2
^/Mystery Space 2^\

Exploring the Shape of Space More Shapes for Space 99

Mystery Spouce, 3 %

/^Mystery Space 3 \

«k

%
% %
100 More Shapes for Space * Exploring the Shape of Space
©2001 Key Curriculum Press
%
I
Activity 9 (continued) Name

Mystery Sjyax& 4

Mystery Space

Exploring the Shape of Space More Shapes for Space 101

More- Shapesfor Spae& «

4
1. Write the name of each space whose fundamental domain
appears below. Unmarked walls are glued to one another in
the simple, straight-across way. (Hint: The answers are
3-torus, Klein space, quarter-turn space, and half-turn
space, but not in that order.)

■ m

<0.

2. If the real universe were a quarter-turn space, how might

we be able to tell?

102 More Shapes for Space Exploring the Shape of Space

*• *

Test
1. Mark X’s winning move in each game below. Note that the
first two games are in a torus, while the second two are in a
Klein bottle.

o X o X o oi
Xi iX Xi X
o i
X o oo X
torus torus Klein bottle Klein bottle

2. The first figure below shows the fundamental domain view

of a spaceship in a torus universe. Draw the tiling view. Do
the same for the Klein bottle universe in the right-hand
column below.

Torus Klein bottle

Fundamental domain Fundamental domain

<7 <7

Tiling view Tiling view

t> ■o f> o
a a ¡i ii ii ii

£> O <T O <T

ii j i ik ik ik

€>

ik a ik ik i k ik

Exploring the Shape of Space Test 103

3. A 2-dimensional torus universe contains the six planets

shown below. Draw the shortest route from Zhur to Mhak.

Zhur

Hubos

o
4. Draw an appropriate 1-dimensional universe in each
box below.
With boundary Without boundary

Finite

Infinite

5. All but one of the following torus tic-tac-toe games are

equivalent. Circle the one that’s different.

o X X X o o X o X o
jX X X X Xi X Xi
oi 4
o i i
o 4
o 4
o
o o X X o X o o
6. Is a 3-torus finite or infinite?

Does it have a boundary?

Is it 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional?

104 Test Exploring the Shape of Space

7. What is the difference between a 2-torus and a 3-torus?

8. Could it be possible to see the same galaxy in two different

directions in the sky? Explain your answer.

9. What is the difference between a cylinder and a Möbius strip?

10. Label the squares’ edges to make a gluing diagram for

each shape.

cylinder Möbius strip torus Klein bottle

11. Draw a plausible house in flatland. Show two flatlanders

living in the house.

#
r
**" ^ Answers -

*»*«

Activity 1: How Biß Is the Universe?

1. 100,000,000,000 (11 zeros)
Students familiar with scientific notation may prefer to write this
number as 1011.
2. 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (22 zeros)
Students familiar with scientific notation may prefer to write this
number as 1022. In words, it is ten sextillion.
3. Answers will vary. The purpose of this question is to get students
thinking about whether or not the universe is infinite.

Honteurorlc 1: llatiaruL
1. Look for signs that students understand what it slomadh
means to be confined to two dimensions. Eyes eye
should not be inside the head, where light wouldn’t
reach them. The mouth must reach the outside too.
U
bna'iin
Several designs are possible for a digestive system tfsTv
that doesn’t let the flatlander fall to pieces. Some
students might use a cul-de-sac approach to
digestion, like that of an amoeba, in which food V
goes in and out the same opening. Others might
interlock the two halves of the flatlander’s body
like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Still others might
employ a linear digestive tract held together with X. S’ Wdh 'ts
\ \&0f>
little hooks, like Velcro: Only one pair of hooks
opens at a time, so the flatlander stays intact.
Enjoy the imaginative drawings you receive!

from above from the side

Exploring the Shape of Space 107

Answers

3. For an image of a flatlander from three dimensions, see Question 1

(on the previous page). Flatlanders see a 1-dimensional image of
their world. For example, the flatlander from Question 1 looks like
this to her fellow flatlanders:

foot mouth eye forehead

The line has a slight thickness for the benefit of human viewers.
Flatlanders see a truly 1-dimensional line, with zero thickness.

Activity Zcu: Coordinates

l.
Latitude Longitude City

23°30'S 46°40' W Säo Paulo, Brazil

64°10' N 21°50' W Reykjavik, Iceland

1°20'S 36°50' E Nairobi, Kenya

22°30' N 88°30' E Calcutta, India

21°20' N 157°50' W Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

52°20' N 4°50'E Amsterdam, Netherlands

2. A globe or world map should provide an estimate of your town’s

latitude and longitude. Answers accurate to the nearest degree
are fine.
3. Students should realize that three coordinates serve to locate an
object in space.

Bonus ProbLews
a. nearest: Lima, Peru
b. farthest: Bangkok, Thailand
To find the location farthest away from a given point
(the “antipodal point”), take the negative of the latitude
(13° N instead of 13° S) and add 180° to the longitude
(79° W + 180° = 101° E).

108 Exploring the Shape of Space

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0 Activity Zb: Dimensions

1. One common method is to specify the airplane’s latitude, longitude,
and altitude. No matter what method is used, exactly three numbers
are required.
2. Latitude and longitude suffice. Only two numbers are required.
3. The distance the train has traveled from Toronto completely
specifies its location. Only one number is required.
4. a. your desktop 2-dimensional
b. a straight line 1-dimensional
c. the circumference of a circle 1-dimensional
d. the inside of a circle 2-dimensional
e. the surface of the moon 2-dimensional
f. the inside of the moon 3-dimensional
g. the surface of a doughnut 2-dimensional
h. the surface of your skin 2-dimensional
i. the air inside your classroom 3-dimensional
j. a movie screen 2-dimensional
t k. the milk in a milk carton 3-dimensional
Bonus Problems
1. The number of seconds past midnight completely specifies the exact
time on a given day. Only one number is required; therefore, time is
1-dimensional.
2. Three numbers are required to specify a color, for example, the
intensities of the red, green, and blue light. Therefore, the set of all
colors is 3-dimensional.

Activity 2c: Pinitc/Injudtc, Boundary/No Boundary

1. a. infinite line: °° cm
line segment with two endpoints: about 6 cm
circumference of circle: about 6 cm
ray: °o cm
(Rough estimates are fine.)
b. The only boundary points are the line segment’s two endpoints
and the ray’s one endpoint.

Exploring the Shape of Space 109

Answers

c. finite with boundary: line segment

finite without boundary: circumference of a circle
infinite with boundary: ray
infinite without boundary: line
2. a. surface of sphere: about 12 cm2
interior of disk: about 4 cm2
infinite plane: °° cm2
half-infinite plane with edge: °° cm2
(Rough estimates are fine.)
b. The only boundaries are the disk’s circumference and the half
infinite plane’s edge.
c. finite with boundary: interior of disk
finite without boundary: surface of sphere
infinite with boundary: half-infinite plane
infinite without boundary: infinite plane

Bonus Problem,
Answers will vary. Here are some possibilities:
finite with boundary: the space inside a room
finite without boundary: the surface of a hypersphere or a 3-torus
(This is the hard case. The 3-torus will be defined in Lesson 6.)
infinite with boundary: a half-infinite 3-dimensional space, bounded
by a plane
infinite without boundary: infinite 3-dimensional space

Homework 2: Wraparound, Universe

1. finite Has a definite, limited length/area/volume.
infinite Has unlimited length/area/volume.
boundary Edge or border.
1-dimensional One number specifies a point.
2-dimensional Two numbers specify a point.
3-dimensional Three numbers specify a point.
2. 1-dimensional Has length but no area.
2-dimensional Has area but no volume.
3-dimensional Has volume.
3. a. 2-dimensional (Two numbers specify a point, for example,
latitude and longitude.)
b. finite (It has a limited, measurable area.)
c. No. (A flatlander could travel anywhere on the sphere’s surface
without ever encountering an edge.)
*

110 Exploring the Shape of Space

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# 4. One example is an infinitely long strip of paper that has borders in

two directions but extends to infinity in the other two directions.

Bonus Problem

A linelander’s skin consists of her two endpoints, which protect her

insides from the outside air. The skin is O-dimensional. It consists of a
left endpoint and a right endpoint. No numbers are required to locate a
point. By way of comparison, note that we 3-dimensional people have
2-dimensional skin, which protects our insides from the outside air.
Similarly, the skin of a 2-dimensional flatlander is his 1-dimensional
perimeter, where his body meets the air.

Activity 3cc: Tic- Tax,- Toe on a, Cylinder

1. Neither player has won.
o o
Olx Xi i iO i
X o o
2. Look for sensible play, including a winning three-in-a-row in
each game.
3.
ox o X X o o*
o
i ¡ i Á
o X i

Ao
i

In the third game, X cannot win immediately, so she must block O

instead. If O then blocks X’s potential win in the middle column,
X wins with the middle right square instead.

Activity 3b: Equivalent games

1. The first, second, and fourth are all equivalent.
Second is equivalent to first (translate right).
Third is equivalent to fifth.
Fourth is equivalent to first (translate right then rotate 180°).
Fifth is equivalent to third (translate right).

Exploring the Shape of Space Ill

Answers

2. This chart shows each equivalent game as a combination of a

reflection followed by a translation.

No translation Translate right Translate left

X X X X X X
No reflection i
o Xi X oi oX i

oo o o oo
X X X X X X
Horizontal reflection X X X
o i
oi o
oo oo o o
oo o o oo
Vertical reflection i o Xi X oi i
oX
X X X X X X

Horizontal and oo oo o o
vertical reflections Xo X oi o Xi
X X X X X X
Note that a horizontal reflection plus a vertical reflection equals a
180° rotation.

Hontetvorlc 3: Cylindrical Tic- Tccc- Toe>

'■ loi ix o \

i i i Ol ¡¿___o i

o X“ X X
o\
2. The first is equivalent to the second and third.
The second is equivalent to the first (translate right).
The third is equivalent to the first (rotate 180°, then translate left).
The fourth is not equivalent to any other. (Columns a and b appear
here, but the remaining column has the X in the wrong place.)

112 Exploring the Shape of Space

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Bonus Problem,
No. The first player (say X) can always win. Here’s one strategy:
1. X makes her first move (anywhere!).
2. O makes his first move (anywhere!).
3. X makes a move threatening a win.
4, O is forced to block, but in doing so 0 threatens his own win.
5. X blocks O’s potential win, and in doing so X creates two potential
winning locations.
6. O can block only one of X’s potential winning locations, so . . .
7. ... X wins on her next move!

Super Bonus Problem,

No. Surprisingly, every game of cylindrical tic-tac-toe must end in a win!
Here’s a proof. If the middle row contains all Xs or all Os, then somebody
has won. Otherwise, it contains two Xs and one O, or vice versa. Without
loss of generality, assume it is two Xs and one O. By translating if
necessary, we may further assume that the O is in the middle, with an X
on either side. If the middle column is all Os, then O has won. Otherwise,
either the top middle or the bottom middle square contains an X. Without
loss of generality, assume the top middle square contains an X. To keep X
from winning, the bottom left and the bottom right squares must be Os.
But that in turn forces the top left and top right squares to be Xs, giving
a win for X across the top.

Homework, 4: Torus games

l.
s m
a e

i e

1
o

r r

3. Finite, no boundary, 2-dimensional

Exploring the Shape of Space 113

Answers

4. a. She is still heading northeast.

Boums Problems
1. a. 3 1 b. 5 3 1
I 4
I I 4
--- 1----- x-/-\-----X—
M
I
L I____ L 2
I
I I
---- x—-----X 2
A 1___L 2
I
I I
------1-7-1------ X--X-/--X----
I I
1 1 1
3 1 5 3 1
2. Answers will vary. Check that students’ puzzles make essential use
of the wraparound nature of the torus, both horizontally and
vertically.

Activity 5: Çtentes on te Torus

2.
O O O
X XOXXOX XO
o Xo Xo X
o oo
X XoXXoXXo
o Xo Xo X
o o o
XXoX XoX Xo
o Xo Xo X

3. a. Red, blue, magenta, and yellow—all of them!

b. There is only one vine. It is very long.

114 Exploring the Shape of Space

Answers

# 4. a. b.
X o X O
o o X Xi
X X
5. The first is directly equivalent (translate right and up to get the
original), the second is not equivalent, and the third is equivalent by
rotation (translate left and rotate).

Bonus Problems
1. The first move doesn’t matter. Any first move is directly equivalent
to any other.
2. The second player has two nonequivalent moves. To see why, first
2 1 2
translate the board one unit down and one unit to the right, so
the X appears in the center. It is now clear that the four squares 1 X 1 i
immediately adjacent to the X are all equivalent to one another by 2 1 2
90° rotations, as are the four corner squares.

Homework 5: More* Torus games

1. They’re all equivalent! To get to the first from the second, translate
down and left; from the third, translate down and right; from the
fourth, translate up and right; from the fifth, translate up and
rotate 180°.
2. Typical fundamental domains are shown below. The important thing
is that a fundamental domain contain each object in the universe
exactly once. No object should be excluded, but none should appear
twice.

* if 4 if' » ‘ f » *f

_• 4L * Ji. ‘ »4L* > 4L ‘

3. Each student’s drawing will be different. The important points

are that
• the nine squares all have identical content
• the design continue smoothly across the boundaries between
squares, making creative use of the torus

Exploring the Shape of Space 115

Answers

Sample drawings:

Poor. The content is not the same in all nine Fair. This is a drawing on a torus, but the motif
squares, so this isn’t a drawing on a torus. fails to use the torus’s wraparound feature.

(Your students’
work goes here.)

Good. The motif makes essential use of Excellent. The design is creative and expresses
the torus. The part extending to the right the student’s special interests, as well as being
interacts with the part extending to the correct as in the previous example.
left, and similarly up and down.
4. A doughnut surface.
Recall, though, that the doughnut surface is much less important
in cosmology than the flat torus, as explained at the end of the
teacher note for Lesson 4.

Bonus Problems
1. They’re all equivalent! To discover how, focus on some easily
recognizable feature, such as the curlicue in the center of the first
maze. Then try to find the same feature (in this case, the curlicue) in
each of the other mazes. You’ll discover that it appears right side up
in the second and third mazes, rotated 180° in the fourth maze, and
reflected horizontally in the fifth. Once you’ve found it, check
whether the remaining portions of the mazes match. This requires
some care and patience!

116 Exploring the Shape of Space

Answers

2. The black queen moves three squares southwest to

land just north of the white bishop, putting the white
king in check. But wait—can the white knight
capture the black queen? No; that would expose the
white king to check by the black rook sitting three
squares to his north. Checkmate!

Video Quide, 1: The, Shape, ofSjpare,, Part 1

1. Cylinder, sphere, torus
2. The doughnut surface is cut open and deformed to a
square. The resulting gluing diagram is identical to
the flat torus the students studied in Lessons 4
and 5.
3. The video shows the flatlanders’ 2-dimensional universe using only
two dimensions as preparation for visualizing a finite 3-dimensional
universe (the 3-torus) using only three dimensions. This saves
students the trouble of learning to visualize 4-dimensional space.
4. The flatlanders can see the back of their own spaceship because
their space wraps around and connects up with itself.
5. The humans can see the back of their own spaceship because their
space connects up with itself.
6. Finite, no boundary

Activity 6a,: The, Real Universe,

1. Answers will vary. The universe could be a 3-torus, although we still
don’t know one way or the other.
2. Answers will vary. For example, students might suggest sending a
spaceship all the way around the universe (traveling in a straight
line) or trying to see another image of ourselves.
3. Answers will vary, depending on the proposed experiments. For
example, the universe is much too big to send a spaceship all the
way around; even at the speed of light, a complete trip would take
billions of years. And it would be difficult to recognize another image
of our own Milky Way galaxy because we’d be seeing it as it was
when it was much younger (and we don’t know what it looks like
from the outside even now).

Exploring the Shape of Space 117

Answers

Acturity 6b: Torus Dimensions

1. a. O
T ®
1 i ® A
î> c>
® ®

® ® ®
t î t
b. There are two nearest images, one directly to the “north” and the
other directly to the “south,” because those are the directions in
which their universe is narrowest.

<S)
*

The dotted line may be directed northward, southward, in both

directions, or in neither.
e. They see their solar system as it was three years earlier, on
Csir 17, 3506, because it takes the light three years to reach
them. In other words, the light they observe spends three years
circumnavigating the universe before returning to the solar
system from which it started.
2. a. We would see our nearest images in the direction in which the
universe is narrowest, that is, to the left or right in the picture.

118 Exploring the Shape of Space

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b. 150 million light-years

-------- 4 !»•
Us
200 250

150

d. The humans see the Milky Way as it was 150 million years ago.
(Note: This answer is correct in a static universe, but in reality
the humans would see the Milky Way as it was somewhat less
than 150 million years ago. The reason is that the real universe
is expanding, so during the early portions of its trip, the light
was traversing a universe smaller than the present one and
therefore making better progress than it otherwise would have.)
^ Bonus Problem,

Mirrors on opposite walls give infinitely many images of everything in

the room.
The images in the mirrored room and in the 3-torus are similar in that
each shows infinitely many images of every object. The images differ in
two ways:
• In the mirrored room, alternate images are reversed. For example,
alternate images of a person face forward and backward. In a
3-torus, all images face the same direction. Thus, for example, if
the person takes a step forward, pairs of images get closer to each
other in the mirrored room (ultimately meeting at the mirror),
but in the 3-torus they stay the same distance apart.
Older students, already familiar with the concepts of translation,
rotation, and reflection, may observe that neighboring images in
the mirrored room differ by reflection, while neighboring images
in the 3-torus differ by translation.
• In the mirrored room, the images repeat in only one dimension.
In the 3-torus, they repeat in all dimensions. If the room’s floor,
ceiling, and all four walls were covered with mirrors, this
difference would be eliminated.

Exploring the Shape of Space 119

Answers

Homework. 6: The.3-Torus
1. Finite, no boundary, 3-dimensional
2. Square; triangle; hexagon; trapezoid
3. Cube; sphere; sphere; cone
4. 300 meters (parallel to the block’s shortest edges)

Bonus Problem.
Choose the fundamental domain so that its corner is at
space station A. Place the other space station, B, at the
very center of the fundamental domain.

Super Bonus Problem.

400 km
1300 km. First apply the Pythagorean theorem as
3002 + 4002 = 5002 to solve for the distance d = 500 km
from the center of the box to the midpoint of an edge.
Then apply it again as 5002 + 12002 = 13002 to solve for
the desired distance D = 1300 km from one space station
to the other. d = 500 km
300 km
Reading: Cosmology D = 1300 km 1200 km
1. Infinite
2. Finite; yes
3. Like Aristotle, Europeans before A.D. 1600 thought of the universe
as finite, with a spherical boundary, and Earth at its center.
4. The discovery that different stars lie at different distances from
Earth, some beyond Aristotle’s boundary sphere
5. Georg Riemann. He proposed the hypersphere, the 3-dimensional
surface of a 4-dimensional ball.
6. The 3-torus
7. A galaxy is a cluster of stars.
8. We live in the Milky Way. Our galaxy got that name because it looks
like milk spilled across the sky.
9. With the naked eye we can see one other galaxy (Andromeda). With
the Hubble Space Telescope we can see roughly one hundred billion
(100,000,000,000) galaxies.

120 Exploring the Shape of Space

Answers

» 10. Alexander Friedmann

11. We know space is expanding because of the red shift; the light from
distant stars is “stretched out.”
12. The universe is approximately 15 billion (15,000,000,000) years old.
13. For its first 300,000 years, the whole universe was filled with a
material similar to the outer layers of the modern sun. (The
material was a plasma consisting of ions, electrons, and radiation.)
14. The light was stretched out by the expansion of space.
15. Fossils are to paleontology as the microwave background radiation
is to cosmology.

Activity 7cc: Making Möbius Strips

2. The line must go around the Möbius strip twice before returning to
the X; the Möbius strip has only one side! The line on the cylinder
goes around only once; the cylinder has two sides.
^1
3. 4.

Möbius strip

5. A Möbius strip has only one boundary circle. (The ant passes
point B before returning to point A.)
6. a. The Möbius strip stays connected! You get only one piece, a
cylinder with twists in it.
b. This time the strip comes apart. You get two linked cylinders,
each with two twists.

Activity 7b: Möbius Strip Tiling Vieur

1. a. The Möbius strip wraps around and connects up with itself in
the vertical direction. Flatlanders living in it would see repeating
images of themselves to the north and south. The Möbius strip
has a boundary along its side. Flatlanders looking to the west or
east would see nothing, because their universe stops at the
boundary.

Exploring the Shape of Space 121

Answers

b. The top of the fundamental domain is glued to the bottom with

2. a.
a flip (a half twist). Thus, in the tiling view, each copy of the
fundamental domain is the mirror image of its neighbors.
Student games will vary.
Î
O
O
y
/\
N/

/s o O s/
/s
Ol lx \/
/s o
b. Check that each student’s fundamental domain has been copied /\
accurately into the tiling view. Every other copy should be
identical to the original fundamental domain, while the alternate
/\ oy
copies are reversed side to side. o
/\
3. In each game, check that the moves are consistent. That is, when
ever an X or O appears in one copy of the fundamental domain, it
O /s
*
should appear in all copies. Most important, alternate images should <3
O
be reversed side to side.

Bonus Problem
This game is played exactly as in Question 3 above, in spite of the
conceptual leap of erasing the seam. Check that students’ moves are
consistent; that is, each row should be identical to the row three units
above or below it but reversed side to side.

Homework 7: Möbius Strips

1. a. All answers are acceptable. Look for predictions of number of
pieces, length of pieces, and number of twists in each piece.
b. There are two connected loops. One loop is a Möbius strip, as
long as the original but only a third as wide. The other loop is a
cylinder that is twice as long as the original Möbius strip and
has two full twists.
-^1

c. ; : The two outer thirds combine to form the twisted

; : cylinder, while the middle third forms the |-width
! i! Möbius strip.
::

122 Exploring the Shape of Space

Answers

» 2. Bobbie (B) returns to her starting position first. Alex

and Chris arrive at each other’s starting positions
after their first lap around the track and must run a
second lap to arrive back at their own starting
positions.
A: B : C
(Note: Bobbie would be on the wrong side of a paper
0 : a : A Möbius strip after only one trip around, but this
problem doesn’t occur in a virtual Möbius strip, which
is a purely 2-dimensional world and doesn’t have a
“top surface” or “bottom surface” as the paper Möbius
strip does. When reviewing this homework problem,
you may want to illustrate the race on a clear plastic
Möbius strip made from a transparency.)

Bourn Problent
Yes. They both lie on an edge. If you translate the Möbius strip on the
left two units upward, it will look like the one on the right (because of
the flip in the Möbius strip).

Activity 8: Çantes on, a, Klein, Bottle,

1. a. b.

¿ L
*1*
J L

o oo oo o
iX

o oo
a ¿C l ¿Cl ¿Cl
~o^[o|o^fo[ö|^[o'
2. a. His tail used to curl to the left, but now it curls to the right. This
happens because the board’s top and bottom are glued with a flip.
b. No. He still looks the same.
c. Anything that leaves the top of the board some distance to the
left of a dotted green line returns at the bottom the same
distance to the right of the line, and vice versa. The dotted green
lines are the glide reflection axes. Older students may already
have seen glide reflections in their previous study of symmetry.

Exploring the Shape of Space 123

Answers

3. a. Yes or no. Depending on how they assemble the puzzle, some

students will find that the piece fits, while others will find it to
be the mirror image of what’s required.
b. No or yes. The piece is now the mirror image of what it used to
be, so students who answered yes to 3a should answer no here,
and vice versa.
c. Yes or no. The piece would have traveled around the board an
even number of times (the first time plus 4317 more times equals
4318 times altogether), so it would be back to its original self.
Therefore, this answer should be the same as the answer to 3a
and the opposite of the answer to 3b.
4. a. b.
e e
r r
t t
a a
1 1
b b

c. The board’s top and bottom are glued with a flip, so anything
crossing them gets mirror-reversed. Another way to think of it
is that if the name “Albert” is slanting toward the dotted green
symmetry axis when it goes out at the bottom left, then it must
still be slanting toward the symmetry axis when it comes back in
at the top right. (Note: To be completely correct, the individual
letters e, r, and t would each appear mirror-reversed. But the
computer game displays all letters unreversed, because in a
Klein bottle word search or crossword puzzle with interlocking
words it’s impossible to orient the letters consistently in all
words at once.)
^--1
d.
i : e
s r
t
o : c
PIh
h; r

e. It can’t fit in a 6-by-6 torus without overlapping itself.

124 Exploring the Shape of Space

Answers

» Homework 8: Klein, Bottle, games

'r
1. X can win in any square of the bottom row. -r A r A r A A r A-

2. Answers will vary. The best puzzles will include

•Q, : : : :
--------------J----------------k------------ J----------------k---------------
x j _

words that wrap around horizontally, words that -r r n r n 1 r

T ■

wrap around vertically, several long words (seven k

<} J L.

-k J -

letters or more), and a large number of intersecting

words. -r
i r
A
o r
i-

3. a. Just to the right of the symmetry line at the - L.

J L.
o ii J u
J -

bottom -r i r i r
i-

: : :
.i.---------- j------------------k. j j

b. Just to the left of the symmetry line at the bottom , i. «. j -

i i ! r -t r
Oil i r
Ojx
r
c. Exactly on the symmetry line (but mirror- ■r 1-

J k J k j k
reversed) -u
I I
j -

^1
4,

Bomu Problems
1. Answers will vary. Check that each puzzle is doable and that words
reflect correctly as they pass across the top/bottom of the
fundamental domain.
2. Answers will vary. As in
Homework 5, Question 2, the
important thing is that a
fundamental domain contains
each object in the universe
exactly once. If a student uses a
rectangular fundamental
domain, it’s best for the vertical
sides to align with the Klein
bottle’s symmetry axes (as in
the second “good” domain at
right) so that the top and
bottom edges match nicely. If
the vertical sides don’t align
with the symmetry axes (as in
the “fair” domain), then the top and bottom edges will disagree with
each other and can’t be glued in the usual Klein bottle way.

Exploring the Shape of Space 125

Answers

3. Yes. In a 5-by-5 Klein bottle a single letter may appear more than
once in the same word (see visualize below left), but in a 6-by-6
Klein bottle the word passes through itself without overlap (see
imagination below right).

u e n
i
a a
m t
v 1 i
a ; i
i
o ;g
z s n i

Video Quiete, 2: The, Shape, of Space,, Part 2

1. Finite
2. No boundary
3. Yes; if some of their images are reversed, they are in a Klein space.
4. Yes

Activity 9: Mystery Spaces

Mystery Space 1 quarter-turn space

Mystery Space 2 3-torus

Mystery Space 3 half-turn space

Mystery Space 4 Klein space

Houteurovk, 9: Move, ShapesJov Space,

1. Klein space; quarter-turn space; 3-torus; half-turn space
2. Answers will vary. For example, we might see some peculiar
combination of galaxies in one part of space and then see the same
combination in another part, only rotated 90°.

Test
1. [12 points]
N/
✓\
i i ¡ \/ i i i
{ l /\
xlolo IX
torus torus Klein bottle Klein bottle

126 Exploring the Shape of Space

Answers

2. [12 points]

O ■O

<7
ii ii a a
<7

<U
ii ii a i \. a
<7 <? <7
& Z>
ik ii ¡k a ii ii ii a

O
torus Klein bottle

3. [10 points]
Mhak

t>
0
Zhur

Hubos

Wilda
Ák
Tado o
0
Mhak Pando

O o
»

4. [12 points]

With boundary Without boundary

Finite
»

Infinite »
■>
<r ►

Exploring the Shape of Space 127

Answers

5. [10 points]
The fourth game is not equivalent to the others
o because two Os appear in the same column. The
oX X rest are equivalent. To get to the first from the
second, translate down; from the third, reflect
Xo across the diagonal line of Os and then translate
up; from the fifth, translate left.
6. [6 points]
Finite; no boundary; 3-dimensional
7. [5 points]
Answers will vary. Some students may say that a 2-torus is
constructed from a square while a 3-torus is constructed from a
cube. Others may point out that the 2-torus is 2-dimensional while
the 3-torus is 3-dimensional.
8. [10 points]
Yes. If our universe is a 3-torus, we might be able to see the same
galaxy in two different directions, because there’s more than one
way for its light to reach us.
9. [5 points]
To make a Möbius strip, glue the ends of a paper strip with a
half twist. To make a cylinder, glue the ends of a paper strip with
no twist.
10. [8 points]
o
A ii

cylinder Möbius strip torus Klein bottle

11. [10 points]

Answers will vary. The important thing is that students draw true
2-dimensional flatlanders and houses, not 2-dimensional images of
3-dimensional houses. Compare to the Homework 1 answers.

[UJ • t'

a m .
Tppvjmkjui WHillllilmlm
good bad

128 Exploring the Shape of Space

f ->
' , l' 0
V •**»
»
¥

♦
Glossary

1-dimensional Only one number is required to specify a location; has

length but no area. A line and the circumference of a
circle are examples of 1-dimensional spaces.

2-dimensional Two numbers are required to specify a location; has

area but no volume. A plane and the surface of a
sphere are examples of 2-dimensional spaces.

3-dimensional Three numbers are required to specify a location; has

volume. Standard Euclidean space, a solid ball, and
the 3-torus are all examples of 3-dimensional spaces.

2-torus See torus.

3-torus See torus.

boundary An edge of space. A traveler who reaches a boundary

can go no farther. The boundary of a line segment is
its endpoints, the boundary of a square is its
perimeter, and the boundary of a solid ball is its
spherical surface. Some spaces, such as (infinite)
Euclidean space or a (finite) torus, have no boundary.

cosmology The study of the universe as a whole.

cylinder A tube. To construct a cylinder, take a rectangular

piece of paper and glue together one pair of opposite
edges.

equivalent gluing Two gluing diagrams are equivalent if they define the
diagrams same object. For example, the two gluing diagrams
shown here are equivalent because they give the same
tic-tac-toe game on a cylinder. To see this more
directly, copy each diagram onto a sheet of paper, roll
the sheets into cylinders, and compare—they will be
identical.

o X X oi
X o i X o
o X oX
finite Has a limited, measurable length/area/volume.
(Antonym: infinite)

fundamental domain A region used to construct a space. For example, a

square is a fundamental domain for a 2-torus, and a
cube is a fundamental domain for a 3-torus.

glide reflection A reflection followed by a translation. The dotted line

in the figure is the glide reflection axis.

$
-----

gluing diagram A polygon with marks indicating how the sides are to
be glued. For example, the gluing diagram for a torus,
shown here, is a square with arrows showing that
opposite sides are to be glued straight across, without
twisting. A gluing diagram for a 3-dimensional space
is a polyhedron, with markings showing how the faces
are to be glued.
O

130 Exploring the Shape of Space

0 half-turn space A cubical block of space with two pairs of faces glued
straight across (as in a 3-torus) but the third pair of
faces glued with a half-turn.

infinite Has unlimited length/area/volume.

(Antonym: finite)

Klein bottle The gluing diagram for a Klein bottle, shown here, is
a square with one pair of opposite sides glued straight
across (as in a cylinder) and the other pair glued with
a flip (as in a Möbius strip).

Klein space A cubical block of space with two pairs of faces glued
straight across (as in a 3-torus) but the third pair
of faces glued with a flip. Each horizontal slice of
the 3-dimensional Klein space is a 2-dimensional
Klein bottle.

Exploring the Shape of Space 131

Möbius strip A rectangle with one pair of opposite sides glued with
a flip.

quarter-turn space A cubical block of space with two pairs of faces glued
straight across (as in a 3-torus) but the third pair of
faces glued with a quarter-turn.

reflection In two dimensions a reflection holds a line still while

interchanging the half planes to either side of it. In
three dimensions a reflection holds a plane still while
interchanging the half spaces to either side of it.

I
rotation A rotation holds one point of an object or space still
and moves the object or space around that point.

132 Exploring the Shape of Space

0 tiling view An infinite lattice of repeating images showing the

contents of a finite space over and over. The tiling
view corresponds to what an inhabitant of the finite
space would see as he or she looked around.
4 * f' * * 4 ' f" 4 ‘ f'
o ¥ K o ¥ js o ¥ _o ¥
0.3C
* *■ * -4¡L * * * * -U *
^ o4*0 o^* û 0~Ar
4 ¥ ;*■ *
3> o>K
* -4C * » * *• JK. * *■ .AC. *
3 o ïp O o A- O 0-A- Ô o A-

torus A 2-dimensional torus (or 2-torus) is a square with

both pairs of opposite sides glued straight across, with
no flip.
f>

A 3-dimensional torus (or 3-torus) is a cube with all

three pairs of opposite faces glued straight across,
with no twisting.

translation A translation moves an object or space in a fixed

direction, without rotation or reflection.

Exploring the Shape of Space 133

©2001 Key Curriculum Press
Exploring the
Shape of Space
W&1
Jeffrey R. Weeks
Exploring the Shape of Space takes students on a tour of the
dimensions and possible shapes of space. Using the games and
activities, students will
• Invent a flatlander who can live in two dimensions.
• Realize the enormous size of our universe.
• Investigate finite universes that have no boundary.
• Play tic-tac-toe on a Möbius strip.
• Create a crossword puzzle on a torus. X O
X X
o o i i X
• Solve a maze on a Klein bottle. XX
• Learn about current cosmological research.
o
• See animations of travel through Klein bottle and 3-torus spaces.
• Discover many possible answers to the question: “Does the
universe go on forever?"
Exploring the Shape of Space gives you the resources to teach this
two-week unit, including teacher notes, a complete answer key, and
blackline masters for transparencies, activities, homework, a test,
and a glossary. The CD-ROM includes computer games and a digitized
version of the video The Shape of Space.
All your students will find this unit exciting. It will inspire their imaginations
and strengthen their understanding of dimensions, area, and volume.
Also available: The Shape of Space video
The video includes an animation showing possible shapes for two- and
three-dimensional universes and depicting travel through those universes
[10:38 minutes] and an interview with Jeff Weeks, originally part of the
WQED production Life by the Numbers [9:04 minutes].
Minimum system requirements: Java-capable browser.
ISBN 1-55953-467-2
90000

Key Curriculum Press

Innovators in Mathematics Education 9 781559 534673

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