The Sheetbend-Bowline Analogy

Knots are a scientific marvel, and I say that with no irony whatsoever. They are capable of accomplishing so many different things - joining lines, forming loops, stopping, and hitching, among other things. And sometimes, when you look at different knots closely, you will find that they are actually astonishingly similar. Some of them may even be identical, but serve a different function!

One of the knots that we are examining today is the Sheetbend, which is a fairly common knot used to join two lines. This is the form it commonly takes.

From Animated Knots

The other knot we are going to examine is the Bowline, which is a knot used to form a loop. This is one of the most ubiquitous sailors' knots in existence today.

From Animated Knots

Now, if you zoom in on the Bowline, like so...

This resembles a Sheetbend.

...you'll notice that the Bowline is just about identical to the Sheetbend. In fact, one could even say that the Bowline is simply a Sheetbend that has been tied back upon its rope, to form a loop!

There's an equivalent in the world of programming. Ever heard of Linked Lists? The nodes in a linked list are basically made of two parts - the data, and a pointer to the next node. If there is no next node, the pointer is null.

A Linked List consisting
of two nodes

Just like a Sheetbend, connecting two different lines!

However, there is another type of Linked List, called a Circular Linked List. This is when the last node does not point to a null, but back to the first node.

A Circular Linked List
consisting of one node.

In the example above, that is a singular node Circular Linked List! Basically, a Circular Linked List with only one node.

When you take those parallels with the Sheetbend into account, would that resemble a Bowline? You know it does!

Finally

This was totally whimsical. But the parallels are uncanny. Granted, not everyone is a knot nerd and a computer geek like myself, so I'll understand if the analogy is lost.

Keeping you in the loop,
T___T