Ways to link the unknot to a pole

57 Views Asked by At

Is there a way to show that the following ways of linking an unknot to an infinite horizontal pole are inequivalent?

enter image description here

Perhaps the Wirtinger presentation would work, but I am not sure because of the infinite pole.

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On

They are equivalent.

Start with the left unknot. It has two upper strands: a left one and a right one. Grasp the right upper strand, and pull it towards the left, over the left upper strand. You will obtain a copy of the right unknot.