Scientists crochet chaos

Crocheted chaos
Crocheted chaos

As if Christmas weren't chaotic enough, a couple of mathematicians at Bristol University are suggesting you crochet your very own model of chaos. The result should be something bizarrely like a large Christmas decoration - unless of course your crocheting skills aren't up to it, in which case your chaos will just look a bit of a mess.

Hinke Osinga and Bernd Krauskopf, of the university's department of engineering mathematics, have published their crochet pattern in the current issue of the Mathematical Intelligencer, basing it on the Lorenz equations that describe the nature of chaotic systems - such as the weather or a turbulent river.

Dr Osinga explained: "Imagine a leaf floating in a turbulent river and consider how it passes either to the left or to the right around a rock somewhere downstream. Those special leaves that end up clinging to the rock must have followed a very unique path in the water. Each stitch in the crochet pattern represents a single point [a leaf] that ends up at the rock."

Together, all the points (stitches) define a complicated surface, according to the Lorenz equations. The two academics have developed a method to describe such surfaces using a computer. After months of staring at animations on a screen, they suddenly realised that, in fact, their computations had naturally generated crochet instructions.

Dr Osinga, who learnt to crochet at the age of seven, rose to the challenge of making a pattern called the Lorenz manifold. "The computer-generated crochet instructions were remarkable.

"Simply by looking at the real-life surface I would never have designed it the way the computer did. After all those months of trying to create it on screen, it was fascinating to see the surface grow under my own hands," she said.

"And it was truly amazing to see a floppy object fall into its desired shape when it was mounted with steel wire," Professor Krauskopf added.

The final result consisted of 25,511 crochet stitches and took Dr Osinga about 85 hours to complete. It now hangs in their house as a Christmas decoration.

They insist it wasn't just done for fun. The pair say their work gives much-needed insight into how chaos arises and is organised in systems as diverse as chemical reactions, biological networks and even your kitchen mixer. Their crocheted model, called the Lorenz manifold, is a very helpful tool for understanding and explaining the dynamics of the Lorenz system.

If you would like to crochet your own Lorenz manifold in time for Christmas, the pattern and mounting instructions are available online