A1 - Pierański Piotr PB - OWN N2 - A concise introduction to the mathematical theory of knots is presented. Definitions of basic notionsare explained. Then, knots are considered as material objects and the question concerning their optimalconformations is posed. A numerical algorithm searching for the ideal knots is described. A few resultsobtained with its help are presented. L1 - http://lib.psnc.pl/Content/488/10.12921_cmst.1998.04.01.09-23_Pieranski.pdf L2 - http://lib.psnc.pl/Content/488 CY - Poznań ER - T1 - IN SEARCH OF IDEAL KNOTS UR - http://lib.psnc.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=488