About

Cost: $ $ $ $ $

Difficulty: • • • • •

Time: 10 mins

Turn a two-sided and four-edged piece of paper into an object that has only one side and one edge.
The Mobius strip is named after mathematician and astronomer August Ferdinand Möbius. It is sometimes called 'endless ribbon' or 'twisted cylinder'. It's a fascinating mathematical symbol, you have to make one to see why. It's the best party trick ever.

Taken from 'Let's Make Some Great Art' published by Laurence King Publishing.

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Super Shanimal favorited Möbius Strip 21 Jun 02:05
Marion D. published her project Möbius Strip 09 Apr 06:00

Step 1
Cut a strip of paper. This piece is 20cm wide and 3cm deep. You can experiment later with different sizes.
Step 2
Give it a half twist.
Step 3
Now tape ends together.
Step 4
You have now made a Möbius strip. It is a fascinating shape and now for some tricks to fully appreciated this mathematical symbol's intriguing properties.
Step 5
Take a pen and start drawing a line down the centre of the strip of twisted paper. You will find the line on both the outside and inside of the ring, even though you have not lifted your pen off the paper.
Step 6
Now take a pair of scissors. Pierce a hole anywhere on the line and start cutting up the centre until you meet the hole. You will now have one big loop. You can play this trick by saying, "how can I make this small circle bigger by cutting it in half?".
Try cutting it down the centre again and see what happens!