Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2021/iii/paper-115/1/b/solution

The zero section is a circle. Its normal bundle is the real line bundle obtained from
so its clutching map reverses sign once around . Its mod-two Euler class of a real line bundle, equivalently its first Stiefel–Whitney class, therefore satisfies
If were orientable, the splitting
and the orientation of the circle would orient , forcing this mod-two Euler number to vanish. This contradiction proves that the Möbius band is nonorientable.

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