Whitehead link
Steve Trettel
| Medium | Computer generated using a custom-built shader material and THREEjs. |
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| The Art | A parameterization of a tubular neighborhood of the Whitehead link, embedded in the 3-sphere. Viewed in 3 dimensional space via stereographic projection through a point on one of the link components, so the visible region is homeomorphic to the link complement. | The Math | Knot theory is the study of closed loops in 3-dimensional space, often in the 3-dimensional sphere. A link is a disjoint union of such closed loops. A fundamental tool in the theory of knots and links is the study of *knot complements*, or the negative space left over when one deletes a knot from the 3-sphere. This space is a non-compact 3-manifold, whose topology remembers much information about the original knot. |
| Categories | Knot Theory, Computer Graphics, Math Illustration, Stereographic Projection |
