Mathematics
The Jones Polynomial and Distinguishing Knots
Quick fact
The Jones polynomial was discovered by Vaughan Jones in 1984 and was so surprising that it could distinguish knots with the same Alexander polynomial—and even distinguish some knots from their mirror images, a property no earlier polynomial invariant possessed.
Why this is interesting
Have you ever untangled a knot in a necklace and wondered if it is truly the same as another tangle? In mathematics, telling knots apart can be surprisingly difficult—and the Jones polynomial is a clever algebraic tool that helps do exactly that.