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Ties of the Matrix: An Exercise in Combinatorics

Posted by timothy on from the hangman's-noose dept.

mikejuk (1801200) writes "The Matrix Reloaded started something when 'The Merovingian' wore a number of very flashy ties. The problem was that we thought we knew how many ways you can tie a tie. The number of ways had been enumerated in 2001 and the answer was that there were exactly 85 different ways but the enumeration didn't include the Matrix way of doing it. So how many "Merovingian" knots are there? The question is answered in a new paper, More ties than we thought [PDf], by Dan Hirsch, Meredith L. Patterson, Anders Sandberg and Mikael Vejdemo-Johansson. The methodology is based on the original enumeration and an interesting application of language theory. The idea is to create a programming language for tying ties and then work out how many programs there are. For single depth tucks there are 177,147 different sequences and hence knots. Of these there are 2046 winding patterns that take up to 11 moves, the same as the The Merovingian knot and other popular knots, and so these are probably practical with a normal length necktie."

35 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. ties by Moblaster · · Score: 4, Funny

    Tie boy: Do not try and tie the tie. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth.
    Neo: What truth?
    Tie boy: There is no tie.
    Neo: There is no tie?
    Tie boy: Yes, you jackarse, this is a techie film and people don't wear ties unless they dropped in accidentally from the Wall Street movie set next door.

  2. You've been living in a Dream World Neo by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 5, Funny

    Morpheus: The Link-bait is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very article summary. You can see it when you load up your RSS feed, or when you log into Slashdot. You can feel it when you're skiving off at work... when you're tweeting during church... when you're moaning online about politics and taxes. It is the distraction that has been pushed into your eyes blind you from the truth.

    Neo: What truth?

    Morpheus: That You are the Product, Neo. Like everyone else you have logged into a panopticon. Into a marketing scam that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your attention-span.

    --
    May the Maths Be with you!
    1. Re:You've been living in a Dream World Neo by zr · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Score: +5, Not funny.

    2. Re:You've been living in a Dream World Neo by GTRacer · · Score: 1

      Please tell me I'm not the only one who read this in Fishburne's voice?!

      --
      Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
    3. Re:You've been living in a Dream World Neo by JudgeFurious · · Score: 1

      We all did. Each and every one of us. It's impossible to resist and at the same time it doesn't work nearly as well if you don't do it.

      --
      Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
    4. Re:You've been living in a Dream World Neo by Ginger+Unicorn · · Score: 1

      I read it in Samual L. Jackson's voice.

      --
      (1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
    5. Re:You've been living in a Dream World Neo by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 1

      Well I wrote it in Fishburne's voice, but I guess the real oscar here goes to Edward Snowden and the Wachowskis.

      --
      May the Maths Be with you!
  3. Started something by artor3 · · Score: 1

    The Matrix Reloaded started something when 'The Merovingian' wore a number of very flashy ties.

    Did it?

    1. Re:Started something by TitusGroan8856 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The Matrix Reloaded started something when 'The Merovingian' wore a number of very flashy ties... the thing it started was millions of geeks saying what a shit film it was.

    2. Re:Started something by plover · · Score: 2

      Whatever it may have started, a love of neckties was not it.

      --
      John
    3. Re:Started something by rnicey · · Score: 2

      Matrix Reloaded was merely a disappointing film. Matrix Revolutions was a shitty, nasty sorry excuse and complete waste of time for a film. Mostly because it wasn't set inside the fucking Matrix. Honestly, if you're going to have a final war between man and machine, set it up to occur inside the matrix, not just the final fight. An army of super humans against machines.... much better than that mech crap we all fell asleep watching.

      Now you've got me started ... Ties pfft ... goddam

    4. Re:Started something by Quirkz · · Score: 1

      I had a very brief moment reading this summary when I thought, "Gee, I didn't know there was mathematical complexity snuck into the Merovingian's ties." Then I thought, "Damn, I wish they'd taken that four hours of thought into the script. They could have doubled the satisfaction value of the story with that effort."

      --
      The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
  4. Matrix ties by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nice article about the matrix ties.

  5. What about the clip? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Those fancy knots are very nice, but how do you clip it to your shirt?

    1. Re:What about the clip? by Immerman · · Score: 1

      You don't, clips are too complicated. Blu-Tack is much more convenient.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    2. Re:What about the clip? by slashmydots · · Score: 1

      Ties get stuck in printers. Screw ties! They're an IT working hazard.

  6. I prefer the variation... by Coditor · · Score: 2

    of the null knot. The question is, is a null knot a knot at all or a knot of null?

  7. Must be a slow news day.... by Proudrooster · · Score: 1, Informative

    Hmmmm... geeks don't wear ties and this was published back in January (3 months ago), and the videos have been on Youtube for years. How is this news?

    1. Re:Must be a slow news day.... by careysub · · Score: 1

      Perhaps published earlier, but I had never heard of this. To those of us intrigued by topology and algorithms (and a bit of whimsy) this article is absolutely delightful. I'll have to pull out one of my ties and try some of these out.

      --
      Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
  8. You really scared me for a second. by GoodNewsJimDotCom · · Score: 1

    I thought I read: Of these there are 2046 winding patterns that take up to 11 movies

    --
    God spoke to me
    1. Re:You really scared me for a second. by FatLittleMonkey · · Score: 4, Funny

      The Matrix
      The Matrix Reloaded
      The Matrix Revolutions
      The Matrix Replicated
      The Matrix Revenge
      The Matrix Relapsing
      The Matrix Regurgitated
      The Matrix Rewindings
      The Matrix Reconjiggered
      The Matrix Repugnant
      The Matrix Revenue

      --
      Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
    2. Re:You really scared me for a second. by grimJester · · Score: 1

      Luckily they never made a sequel.

  9. Black on Black by chill · · Score: 1

    For someone seemingly intelligent enough to try and enumerate the tie options in code, they were brain dead fucking stupid enough to try to illustrate it with small pictures of a black tie on a black shirt.

    Sheer genius.

    --
    Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
    1. Re:Black on Black by qpqp · · Score: 1

      They also added the source at the end. Visualize yourself.

  10. moderator selection by sshore · · Score: 1

    Heh, don't feel bad, I get about 30 positive karma a week and I haven't received mod points for a couple of years now. Guess I shouldn't have criticized Dice ...

    If I remember correctly, moderators are picked from users with an average amount of activity. You might be falling into the obsessive side of that particular curve :)

  11. Re:WHO by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 1

    graduations, weddings, funerals, job interviews where you don't want to scare HR with your forest of chest hair.

  12. They had to find out how the tie was tied by bytesex · · Score: 1

    They didn't think to just make a phonecall to the producers of the movie?

    --
    Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
  13. Re:I don't care. by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    And yet you cared enough about not caring to post this. That's just weird.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  14. Re:There's in infinite number of ways by Kinthelt · · Score: 1

    There's danger to be had when Slashdot ventures into knot theory (and braid theory).

    BTW, you forgot to mention the important lemma that you can turn any braid into a knot by adequately connecting the ends.

    --

    "Evil will always triumph over good, because good is dumb." - Dark Helmet (Spaceballs)

  15. Re:WHO by dont_jack_the_mac · · Score: 1

    ... or lack there of

  16. James Bond by Doctrinsograce · · Score: 1

    If I remember correctly, James Bond didn't trust a man who used anything except a Double Windsor to tie his tie. But that was a long time ago... I think about the time I stopped reading Ian Fleming. :-)

  17. Re:There's in infinite number of ways by vux984 · · Score: 1

    (given a tie of infinite length)

    Are we given a tie of infinite length? No.

  18. It's about language theory, not just ties by billstewart · · Score: 1

    There's a whole lot of deep security and programming thought that goes into most of Meredith and Dan's papers (I don't know the other two authors), so while I haven't read this one yet, I'm expecting good things from it. Go check out the whole "weird machines" security discussion.

    Also, I've got a closet full of ties, most of which I haven't worn this millennium, so hey, why not :-)

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  19. Re:WHO by billstewart · · Score: 1

    Yes, Dr. Who wears ties any more. (Or at least, David Tennant and Matt Smith did; haven't seen the latest Doctor yet. Bow ties are cool, right?)

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  20. Re:WHO by billstewart · · Score: 1

    Back in the 90s and early 2000s I was consulting, so whether I wore a tie or not depended on the customer. The sales guy I worked with brought me along to one Japanese company in the late 90s, so I guessed conservative and wore a tie. They asked me not to do it again; they'd convinced their management that nobody in Silicon Valley wears ties, and didn't want anybody to mess that up :-)

    I did wear a tie to a New Year's party recently, and I wore one to a trade show a year or so ago just because I hadn't had any excuse to wear a tie in ages.

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks