Maths and Robots can Help You Cure Hairfall. You read that Right!
Maths and robots can actually determine the techniques of combing and reducing your hair fall problems!
Researchers have developed a mathematical understanding of detangling that could be used for textile manufacturing and robotic hairdressing. Scientists explore the maths and robots of combing and explain why this brushing technique is the most effective method to detangle a bundle of fibers.
Tear-Free Hair Brushing
In the latest paper, published in the journal Soft Matter, Mahadevan, the Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and of Physics, and co-authors Thomas Plumb Reyes and Nicholas Charles, explore the mathematics of combing and explain how this brushing technique used by robotic hairdressers is the best way to promote tear-free hair brushing.
Mahadevan, learned the mechanics of combing years ago while brushing his young daughter’s hair. He was a scientist and the topology, geometry, and mechanics of detangling posed interesting mathematical questions that are relevant to a range of applications including textile manufacturing and chemical processes such as polymer processing.
The researchers simulated two helically entwined filaments, which are the detangling of the double helix via a single stiff tine that moves along it, leaving two untangled filaments in its wake, and short strokes that start at the free end and move towards the clamped end remove tangles by creating a flow of a mathematical quantity that hair strands that are braided with each other are consistent with the simulations of the process.
The mathematical principles of brushing developed by Mahadevan, Charles, and Plumb-Reyes were recently used by Professor Daniela Rus and their team at MIT to design algorithms for brushing hair by a robot. Next, they study the mechanics of brushing curlier hair and how it responds to humidity and temperature, which may lead to a mathematical understanding of a fact that every person with curly hair is aware of: never brush dry hair!
