this post was submitted on 05 May 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] rockerface@lemmy.cafe 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There are geometrical objects called spinors which are basically vectors with a half spin. Interestingly, they were introduced before we realized they could describe spin of electron and other particles like it. Sometimes a purely theoretical mathematical concept suddenly turns out to be describing very real things.

[–] egerlach@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So quarks are möbius strips? Got it. 😛

[–] rockerface@lemmy.cafe 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What you've got there is string theory

[–] egerlach@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Wait, how close is that to true? Does string theory really just boil down to "quarks are möbius strips"?

[–] psud@aussie.zone 2 points 5 days ago

I feel like it was a joke; I don't think Moebius strips are at all relevant to string theory

Most of this stuff is really not amenable to language, and can only really be understood in the mathematics that physicists use

[–] rockerface@lemmy.cafe 1 points 5 days ago

Not specifically Möbius strips, but the main premise is that all elementary particles are in fact strings in high dimensional space, and all of their unique properties come from the way those strings are shaped and moving.

Maybe there would be a particle that corresponds to a string tied in a Möbius loop, for all I know.