Product: Office Supplies: Sticky Tape
Möbius sticky tape   (+4)  [vote for, against]
Ideal for wrapping awkwardly shaped gifts

Just in time for Christmas, BorgCo are launching a new and highly innovative product, Möbius Sticky Tape.

Supplied on a handy dispenser (Patent pending), BorgCo Möbius Sticky Tape has a huge advantage over all other products in that even in its smaller iterations, it has infinite surface area; therefore, any joint made with it is, by definition, infinitely strong.

A small quantity can be used to wrap a package of arbitrarily large size.

Amaze your friends* ! Be the envy of your colleagues ! Leap tall buildings in a single bound ! Break the ice at parties !

*For [bigsleep]'s benefit, a "Friend" is defined as "Someone other than your mother who thinks maybe your're not a complete jerk and total loser, and who tolerates your presence for a motvation other than free alcohol or drugs".
-- 8th of 7, Dec 23 2016

This idea is flawless, once one gets past the fundamental flaw in the original premise. A Möebius strip does not have infinite surface area. If the original linear strip has an area of A on each of its two faces, then turning it into a Möebius strip gives you something with a single face of area 2xA.

I am reasonably confident that 2xA will not be infinite. I am running this through my computer to check, and as soon as he gets back to me I'll post an update.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 23 2016


But there *is* no "original linear strip" - it's manufactured ab initio as a Möbius strip - actually made twisted.

That was the second most difficult part of the design to perfect.
-- 8th of 7, Dec 23 2016


// actually made twisted// So, sort of like the Borg?

Howevertheless, irregardless of that, a Möebius strip has a finite area, just as a sphere does.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 23 2016


I've already got one, but it fell into the Klein bottle, spent hours with a bent coat-hanger trying to get it out.
-- not_morrison_rm, Dec 23 2016


// Pat. Pending //

Sp. fixed.

// a Möebius strip has a finite area //

... in which case there must be a corresponding equation, like 4Πr2 for the sphere. Come on then, what is it ?
-- 8th of 7, Dec 24 2016


[+] Presumably you'd apply the moebius tape and it would magically transform into something that sticks where the user wants it to and not randomly to anything in the immediate locale like the pieces of tape that start out flat do.
-- FlyingToaster, Dec 24 2016


//a corresponding equation//

Certainly. It's 2cw, where "c" is the circumference and w is the width.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 24 2016


//2cw// And given that c is the speed of light, we can conclude that the surface area of a möbius strip is, while not actually infinite, nonetheless rather large.
-- pocmloc, Dec 24 2016


Pains me to say, but I love it.
-- po, Dec 24 2016


Fabulousinating, innovative. And it might even work.

A klein croissant for your efforts. [+]
-- whatrock, Dec 24 2016


// And a happy christmas to you too. //

Likewise.

Remind us, what was it you said that earned you that particular squirt of venom ? There must have been something ... or maybe it was someone else ...

We'll check and get back to you.
-- 8th of 7, Dec 24 2016


Can I have a sticky infinte M. C. Escher transition print please? It should juxtaposition the repetitive one-use christmas wrapping quite nicely.
-- wjt, Dec 24 2016



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