Celeb Glow
general | April 18, 2026

How to exchange the components of Whitehead link?

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I'm a bit new to knot theory and I'm trying to exchange the two components of a Whitehead link (below) by using only a series of isotopies. I'm able to see how the knot gets unknoted and becomes the circle but still fail to see how the circle part can transform into the knot by an isotopy, any help would be appreciated.

Whitehead link

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1 Answer

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Consider the following series of isotopies:

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Rotate the inner most loop

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And again

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Pull out the inner "loop"

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Begin rotating the left twist around the circle

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Rotate further

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Move the top arc to the inside

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Stretch everything to make it look "nice"

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