Connection With Braids
If one cuts the Borromean rings, one obtains one iteration of the standard braid; conversely, if one ties together the ends of (one iteration of) a standard braid, one obtains the Borromean rings. Just as removing one Borromean ring unlinks the remaining two, removing one strand of the standard braid unbraids the other two: they are the basic Brunnian link and Brunnian braid, respectively.
In the standard link diagram, the Borromean rings are ordered non-transitively, in a cyclic order. Using the colors above, these are red over yellow, yellow over blue, blue over red – and thus after removing any one ring, for the remaining two, one is above the other and they can be unlinked. Similarly, in the standard braid, each strand is above one of the others and below the other.
Read more about this topic: Borromean Rings
Famous quotes containing the word connection:
“The connection between our knowledge and the abyss of being is still real, and the explication must be not less magnificent.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)