Drawing The Line

Despite appearances, I have not been idle when it comes to my Line Around The World Project (perhaps to be retitled, The Subway Line). Most of the work that I have done on it is on the theoretical side. Let's face it, it is a little more difficult to draw a line around the world than you might first think. I've been thinking, running tests, and planning. No more of those running out of paper incidents for me. There are probably problems ahead that I haven't considered, but I have solved (with help) the ones that have come up at the start.

The first problem I encountered was the very time intensive process of taping sheets of paper together. The large sheets of paper were nice, in that they gave plenty of room for my line to move and express itself, but it is not strictly necessary. Thanks to Midori's suggestion to use cash register tape, a great deal of taping has been eliminated, with resulting time savings.

The second problem I faced was when my wife looked at the line running down the hallway towards the front door and said, “I suppose I'm going to have to learn to vacuum around that..” Of course that wasn't what she meant. Men understand this sort of thing. Sometimes we just pretend we don't. However since I would soon be halfway around the world, I knew that eventually she would pick up that starting portion of the line and toss it. Then where would I be?

And I'm sure there will be other situations when portions of the line will be run over by uncaring traffic, or be swept away by flowing lava, or even be trampled by herds of clumsy elephants. In other words, it is very unlikely that the line would exist complete and pristine by the time I get home. I mean, look at the French. They are already rioting and burning cars over some minor changes to something or other. Can you imagine the chaos that will take place when I come along with my line. They will be totally bent out of shape by the Political and Environmental aspects of my line. You see, I'm trying to plan ahead here.

Anyway, as it turns out, in solving the first problem I also solved this second problem. The cash register tape is perfect for a retractable line. Line segments can be drawn in advance and rolled out as needed. After a period of time (long enough to record the event in pictures) the line can be rolled up again and be safely stored away. It is a different way of looking at it, but I believe it is a realistic and valid way of doing it.

There is a third problem which was a bigger blow to my mind, but I'll save that one for later. It is time to get the line out and see what it looks like. I know exactly how long it is, but I haven't seen it rolled out yet. Here goes.

Here is where I left off before.

Now I add the first line segment to it.

This first segment gets us around the corner.

Adding another gets us here.

Add a couple more and we zip along to here.

And the last of the segments takes us to here.

As you can see, we have almost made it to the public street.

Now to prove my concept I retracted the line by rolling it back up.

I should be able to make much more rapid progress from now on. That is, if it wasn't time to work on the November Ink Drop mazes.

Tomorrow I will have the next dose of the first maze for you.

Jonathan