Gloriana González

The Möbius Zipscarf By Gloriana González & Michelle Heredia, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA A Möbius strip is a one-sided, three-dimensional shape that's encountered in mathematics. An interesting property regarding Möbius strips is that if you cut it in the middle, you obtain a Möbius strip that's twice as long as the original one. Using this idea, we constructed a scarf in the shape of a Möbius strip, where by unzipping it, you reveal scarf twice as big as the original one that also takes on the shape of a Möbius strip. We used cotton fabric and sewed in the zipper as a “sleeve” to cover the seams. The two-way zipper opens completely, separating the “cut” into two pieces. The two colors, red and purple, show the two sides of the original strip. The blue zipper simulates the typical “cut” of the original strip. The scarf can be used short or long, according to the user’s preference. When opening the two sides of the zipper, people can appreciate that the scarf is twice as long. The two colors also help to appreciate the twists when opening the zipper. We hope people will use the scarf to feel math fashionable with the two possible looks. We created this design as part of an internal competition in our research group which studies intersections between design, social justice, and mathematics. The design was partially supported by a National Science Foundation’s grant to Gloriana González (Principal Investigator) and Saadeddine Shehab (Co-Principal Investigator) for the project, “Engaging Teachers in Integrating Human-Centered Design for Geometry Problem-based Instruction,” Grant No. DRL-2300689. Opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.