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Klein Tunnel

Klein based Super-/Subway - And you thought the Circle and District Line was cool!
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Metropolitan Mass Transit system based on Klein Tunnels - If you stay on the train for long enough you visit all mainline and sub-terrain stations.
Dub, Dec 09 2005

Inspired by xenzag's comment on Exit Photos Exit_20Photos
[Dub, Dec 09 2005]

3D representation of a Klein Bottle http://sodwana.uni-...mg/klein_bottle.jpg
Two points:
a) A Klein bottle is actually a four dimensional object.
b) If you went on a subway train down a real Klein tunnel, you would come back inside out. [DrCurry, Dec 09 2005]

Kingston Trio MTA Lyrics http://web.mit.edu/.../www/t/charlie.html
How Charlie [possibly Felix Klein's grandson] became "the man who never returned", circa 1959. [jurist, Dec 12 2005, last modified Dec 14 2005]

The Manhattan Transfer - TWILIGHT TONE - http://www.tmtfanclub.com/extens.html
Song about //Mr Miller// one of the many songs about the subject (American Pie's another one, unless I'm wrong!) [Dub, Dec 12 2005]

Buy a Klein Bottle http://www.kleinbottle.com/
Fairly inexpensive too. I've been after one for a while. [wagster, Dec 12 2005]

(???) Ian's Underwear question...? Mobius_20Strip_20Underwear
(Comment dated today) [Dub, Dec 12 2005]

Klein Tunnel Klein_20Tunnel
(Watch it, when you use this link... Count how many times you press it. It'll be useful information later) [Dub, Feb 03 2006]

[link]






       Someone wrote a sci fi story once where the Boston subway turned into a Mobius strip (I guess that was before the days of Klein bottles), and some trains got lost permanently.
DrCurry, Dec 09 2005
  

       I was thinking of implementing it as a map - I.e. throw away the current Tube network map (obviously keep they style, format and layout! - but throw away the Northern Line/Bakerloo line... etc) and re-render it on a Klein bottle - and then (with some engineering, anyway) ensure that a tube train you get on at Morden ends up at Morden having first visited the other stations - e.g. at Balham it might go overground to Clapham Junction and then Pop back underground at Waterloo etc... I haven't really thought it through very much, I must admit.
Dub, Dec 09 2005
  

       You could possibly make all the lines figures of eight. It would certainly address the poor service the outer boroughs/boros receive.
DrCurry, Dec 09 2005
  

       Yes, figure-8 but sur-/sub-terrain.
Dub, Dec 09 2005
  

       //...subway turned into a Mobius strip...and some trains got lost permanently//
How can you get lost on a Mobius strip?
ldischler, Dec 09 2005
  

       That part was not adequately explained - it was a science fiction story, after all.
DrCurry, Dec 09 2005
  

       Well, the Kennedys did figure out how to make billions of dollars dissapear into those tunnels -- does that count, DrCurry?
theircompetitor, Dec 09 2005
  

       Can someone explain to me, and possibly a large amount of readers who don't post here, what the fuck a Klein tunnel is?   

       I'm not trying to be hostile, but I find that the addage of profane comments adds a bit a certain kind of humor I like. =D
EvilPickels, Dec 09 2005
  

       lovely!
po, Dec 09 2005
  

       [Evil Pickels] Just a tip, but you might just try googling "Klein bottle" next time before profanely expressing easily fixable ignorance. Works for me.
sophocles, Dec 09 2005
  

       He did, but one of the hyperlinks off the page was to //Recursion//, and that had a tail-recursive self-reference, and he got stuck / his stack crashed.
Dub, Dec 09 2005
  

       [Dub], that's a good "inside" joke...infinitely inside/outside perhaps....
sophocles, Dec 09 2005
  

       Sorry, I couldn't help myself.
Dub, Dec 09 2005
  

       So the only thing stopping us implementing this is to find a way to tunnel in 4 dimensions? Surely this is not insurmountable? Can anyone think of a way of doing this?
Minimal, Dec 12 2005
  

       slip acid drops in all the construction workers' choc-milks.
Honduras, Dec 12 2005
  

       //And you thought the Circle and District Line was cool// Are you quite sure you're not a (Tube) trainspotter, [dub]?
AbsintheWithoutLeave, Dec 12 2005
  

       You can buy Klein bottles - would a tunnel not just be an elongated version?   

       What would happen if the entrance to the Klien bottle was on the lid of Schrödinger's cat box? Would the box still be a box? etc etc
xenzag, Dec 12 2005
  

       Didn't the Kingston Trio address this issue in 1959? [link]
jurist, Dec 12 2005
  

       [DrCurry][Link] Perfect! - If the tunnels are arranged correctly, and you're standing on the right place in the platforms, you'll automagically 'enter' the train at your start and 'exit' at the destination! Doors become just one more problem you don't have to think about - And there'd be no need for the //Mind The Gap// warnings anymore!   

       [jurist] Could be. Kendall Square, isn't that where Thinking Machines used to be? - Right near MIT. And I guess he's called Charlie after the river - I guess the fares would be tricky to calculate, what with moving in 5D space (4D+Time) - Some clever new 'Zones' would have to be dreamt-up - Tooting Bec/Broadway would be in the Twilight Zone. - Perhaps //The Manhattan Transfer// will write lyrics about it one day too (cf "Twilight Tone").   

       [AbsintheWithoutLeave] Of course - And you don't need an anorak down/up/in/out there (of course a clipboard and thermos are still de rigeur)   

       [xenzag] Excellent, too! - The cats would sort-out the Tube's long running Schrödinger's Mouse problems - Ow, I'm getting sooo excited about the idea now!
Dub, Dec 12 2005
  

       Tooting would be in the Benighted Zone.
coprocephalous, Dec 12 2005
  

       Trains delayed by Fractal Ferns on the (Möbius strip) rails   

       [Copro] Tooting is twinned with both The Twighlight Zone and "Your Darkest Thought"   

       [wagster]Wow, that vessel with Green/Yellow liquid in it's amazing!...   

       Ah, but is it half yellow, half full, half empty or half green?   

       [Ian Tindale]See link...   

       I'm starting to suspect there's a joke hovering about Bakerloo... but nah!
Dub, Dec 12 2005
  

       /How can you get lost on a Mobius strip?/
By falling off, of course.
  

       /And there'd be no need for the //Mind The Gap// warnings anymore!/
Mind The Singularity
egbert, Dec 13 2005
  

       Ignorance check (for exoneration of [EvilPickels]): I searched for "Klein tunnels" on Teoma, and it took me right back to this Halfbakery page.   

       If the idea mentioned "Klein bottle" maybe I would have recognized it as the 4-dimensional object/surface.
ed, Feb 03 2006
  

       // I searched for "Klein tunnels" on Teoma, and it took me right back to this Halfbakery page.//   

       Haha! MY MONSTER LIVES!!!! - Hundreds will be trapped here!
Dub, Feb 03 2006
  

       //entrance to the Klien bottle was on the lid of Schrödinger's cat box?// The cat would remain in an indeterminate state, neither inside nor outside the box.
spidermother, Feb 04 2006
  

       Lol!
skinflaps, Jul 15 2008
  
      
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