Is there any specific name for a coffee cup handle in mathematics?

princy
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is there any specific name for a coffee cup handle in mathematics?
 
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Torus
 


maybe a solid torus? a torus is technically a surface formed as a cross product of two circles.
 


sutupidmath said:
Torus

i think torus is wrong.. is there any name for a bend like structure?
 


? What do you mean by a "bend like structure". A coffee cup handle and, indeed, the entire coffee cup is topologically equivalent to a "solid" torus.
 


This is way out of my comfort zone, but aren't the structures described by the OP sometimes called handles? Such as here.
 


are we going in circles? that's what the OP said.
 


Yep! Sometimes we call a handle a handle!
 


i'm curious about the context of the question. a solid handle by itself is contractible and so mathematicians wouldn't bother giving it a name. but we often refer to "handles" when we are attaching them to other spaces. a coffee cup handle would be a 3-handle...if you attached a 3-handle to a solid ball you get a torus. in this context it makes sense to name the "handle". but i would say in general, the coffee cup handle is trivial. anyone agree?
 
  • #10


Well, if it is not attached to something, in what sense is it a "handle"?
 
  • #11


redbowlover said:
i'm curious about the context of the question. a solid handle by itself is contractible and so mathematicians wouldn't bother giving it a name. but we often refer to "handles" when we are attaching them to other spaces. a coffee cup handle would be a 3-handle...if you attached a 3-handle to a solid ball you get a torus. in this context it makes sense to name the "handle". but i would say in general, the coffee cup handle is trivial. anyone agree?

as mentioned above, technically the torus is 'hollow' the 'filled in' torus you describe is different topologically than S^1\times S^1 in that its fundamental group is just Z instead of ZxZ.
 

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