Thread: Klein bottle as the union of two Mobius bands

I am trying to calculate the homology groups of the Klein bottle. I want to use the Mayer-Vietoris sequence with the Klein bottle decomposed as the union of two Mobius bands (A and B which are homotopic equivalent to circles), now AUB is the Klein bottle, but I don't understand how according to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayer%E...e#Klein_bottle

AnB is also homotopic equivalent to a circle, I would think that the intersection is the disjoint union of two Mobius bands, so it is homotopic equivalent to the disjoint union of 2 circles, hence $\displaystyle H_n(A n B)$ should be $\displaystyle Z \oplus Z$ . But according to what's written in wikipedia, $\displaystyle H_n(A n B)$ is just $\displaystyle Z $ . Why?

Am I thinking this all wrong?

On that Wikipedia page, the intersection of A and B is connected--look at the way the top and bottom edges are identified. When you go off the top of the left strip, you come back at the bottom of the right strip, and vice-versa.

Duh, you're right, so AnB is also a Mobius band which is homotopic equivalent to a circle....

Thanks!

Yup! One tiny detail: AnB has two twists in it, not one, so it's homeomorphic to a circle cross an interval, not a Mobius band.