French bowline French bowline Some consider that a French bowline is the same as a Portuguese bowline, i.e. a bowline with two loops that can be used as a bosun's chair. A different knot is however also known as a French bowline. This form of bowline is similar to a standard bowline but there are several loops so that there is less likelihood of damage to a delicate object secured by the bowline. As with a standard bowline, the knot cannot tighten. Pressure is distributed over a wider area than in the case of a standard bowline. The main advantage of this
Arf invariant of a knot graph associated to a knot diagram. This approach to the Arf invariant is by Raymond Robertello. Let be the Alexander polynomial of the knot. Then the Arf invariant is the residue of modulo 2, where "r" = 0 for "n" odd, and "r" = 1 for "n" even. Kunio Murasugi proved that the Arf invariant is zero if and only if Δ(−1) formula_8 ±1 modulo 8. From the Fox-Milnor criterion, which tells us that the Alexander polynomial of a slice knot formula_9 factors as formula_10 for some polynomial formula_11 with integer coefficients, we know that the determinant formula_12 of a