For the nonspecialist seeking the advanced merit badge, addresses such questions as the properties and types of knots, distinguishing between a true knot and a mere tangle, and measuring a knot's complexity. The emerging branch of mathematics dealing with knots is finding applications in DNA research and synthesizing new molecules, and is providing some interesting puzzles for statistical mechanics and quantum field theory. Does not cover knotholes. Illustrates nearly 200 knots. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR