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A PIECE OF NEWSPAPER
Summer 1975
Mr Twizzle was abroad on business and was visiting some old friends for the day. He hadn't intended to do anything in their show and was chatting to his old friend the circus director when somebody came running across the ground and pounded on the door. “Juergen has broken his arm again, and Karl has taken him off to the hospital. We can cover his trapeze act, but with them both away there's no one to do any clowning!”
The director looked straight at Mr Twizzle, as if waiting for him to say something.
As the show got going, Mr Twizzle changed into the jacket and trousers that Karl's wife had loaned him and waited in the ring doors. He prepared several sheets of newspaper, using scissors and a paste stick, and was watched with interest by the director's son and daughter. He stowed two long paper loops in one pocket, two more in his trousers, and dropped the last over his forearm. As the previous act came out he ran in with the two children and greeted the audience.
“Anna! You're a clever child!” He said, grabbing the younger child. “Would you like to prove it?”
Anna said she would like to prove it, so Mr Twizzle drew one of his paper loops from his trousers and handed it to her. He started to tear his loop longways down the middle, and stopped.
“If you tear yours like mine, what will you have?”
Anna thought about it.
“Two loops?” She asked.
“That's right! One new loop each from yours, one new loop each from mine,” answered Mr Twizzle. Two loops each. Let's go!”
Mr Twizzle was fast at tearing his paper, and spent a lot of time looking to see if Anna was doing it right and telling her to be careful. As she tore the last piece, he held up his two separate narrow loops, and watched as Anna held up what she had made. She looked extremely surprised as she found she had just one loop, twice as long as before. Mr Twizzle looked surprised too, and compared his two with her one.
“You made a real mess of that!” he complained. “Do it again, and do it properly this time!” He took another loop out of his jacket pocket and put it into her hands.
“Remember. Two loops. One each!”
Anna tore the new loop of paper with great care. as Mr Twizzle looked over her shoulder. He had already prepared it for her, divided it into two over part of the length, but she needed to concentrate because he was keeping up a continuous stream of advice.
“Is it two?” he asked as she finished.
Anna nodded, and moved her hands apart. They wouldn't go far apart, though. The two loops were linked together! Anna shrieked with laughter, and chased Mr Twizzle from the ring.
“But, how does the trick work?”
Mr Twizzle handed Anna a paper loop from out of his trouser pocket.
“Look at it more carefully this time,” he told her.
She turned it through her hands, without seeing anything at first. Then light dawned on her.
“It's twisted!” She said, excited by her discovery. “The front is glued to the back.”
“That thing is called a 'Mobius Band',” he said. “It's got only got one edge and one side.”
Mr Twizzle handed her the other one from his jacket. “Now look at the other. It's the same, but different.”
Now Anna knew what to look for it was easy, even though from the first she could see that this one didn't have it's multi coloured front glued to it's black on white back. But she could see that it was twisted all the same.
”It's twisted twice.” Said Micki. “That must be the one that make two loops joined together, so the first one is the long loop.”
“Thanks for showing us, Mr Twizzle.” Said Anna. “Show us some more?
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