Ties of the Matrix: An Exercise in Combinatorics

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."

ties

[Moblaster]

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.

You've been living in a Dream World Neo

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

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.

What about the clip?

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:You really scared me for a second.

[FatLittleMonkey]

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