So lately, I have been going through Colin Adams "The Knot Book" as I recently stumbled upon the intriguing world of knot theory. My only complaint with the book is that I believe it would be nice to have a bit more guidance with some of the exercises.
In any case, I have been struggling with exercise 3.4 shown here. This is the question:
I understand how to get the unknotting number. I can't get the alternating projection. Whenever I do a series of Reidemeister moves, the knot gets even more convoluted and seemingly farther away from an alternating projection. I imagined the solution to be much more efficient than what I've been doing.
If I need to edit my post to make it more in line with the rules here or to clarify something, please do let me know. I'm very new here.
I really appreciate any help you guys can offer.