Have you ever caught yourself in a heated discussion with your friends regarding whether hotdogs are sandwiches? What about tacos? Burritos? One slice of bread with peanut butter on one side and jelly on the other? How much does topology come into play in the definition of a sandwich? What about the metrics we impose in such topological structure?
For the final project of this course, I will attempt to answer above questions from a topologist’s (more like an intro to topology student’s) standpoint. Hopefully, by the end of the project I will be able to present a definition of a sandwich that is universally acceptable, or even preferable among the sandwich enthusiasts all around the world.
jedunay
February 19, 2018 — 23:41
I think that if this is actually done well, perhaps, it could be used to discuss mathematics and topology with people outside the mathematics community. Do you think that you will generalize this to discussing sandwiches in higher dimensions? Also, do you think that you will do a classification of sandwiches (and sandwitchoids)?
brwendt
February 19, 2018 — 19:55
I’m so excited to hear what you do with this. Sandwiches are my favorite food, and it is very important to me that I learn the topological structure of a sandwich so I can describe exactly what my favorite food is to everyone I meet. This is hugely important work, and I think that I hope that this will open new world as to the exact definition of a sandwich. One of my more radical views on this topic is that bruschetta is a sandwich. Let me know if I’m right!
jhmuelle
February 19, 2018 — 17:32
This topic is a lot fun. I have had many silly arguments about this. Personally I accept pop tart as the most extreme example of a sandwich but nothing Mexican. There is alignment chart comparing stances on what is a sandwich to alignment in Dungeons and Dragons that you may find amusing (and maybe useful?). If you google “sandwich alignment chart” will come up.