The Red Thread: March

The Red Thread: March

Welcome to the sixth edition of The Red Thread, where we’ve gathered a collection of engaging articles covering a variety of topics. Starting with our guest writer; Olaf, who writes about ancient greek. Continuing with Jochem with a fascinating story about cabinet collapses in the Netherlands. On to Lisanne, who will inform us about the interesting mathematics behind the sudoku. And the last writer; Cemre with the start of the Formula 1 season.

The ancient Greek mythology
Olaf Oostenbrug

Keeping with ancient Greek mythology, where the Moirae spun the Red Thread, our SECTOR committee now carries this tradition forward. By spinning, shaping, and cutting the thread of life, they determined everyone’s fate. The thread itself was thin, but its meaning extended far beyond the individual—it connected everything and everyone.

A similar belief exists in East Asian mythology, particularly in Chinese folklore, where the Red Thread of Fate, also known as the Red Thread of Marriage, is said to invisibly bind those destined to meet. It is often described as an unseen cord wrapped around the fingers of soulmates, guiding them toward their inevitable encounter. Though different in origin, both myths share a common theme: the Red Thread is not just a symbol of destiny, but of connection, weaving together the fabric of existence.

Stories of the Red Thread’s origins all reflect a deeper truth—it represents the hidden forces that link people, ideas, and events. In the same way, SECTOR and The Red Thread serve as constants in this magazine. As the overseer of the SECTOR committee, I witness how ideas take shape, evolve, and become the articles we all know and love. Each edition is like a new piece of thread, woven from the creativity and dedication of our committee. Sometimes it forms a precise pattern, sometimes a playful mosaic, but the Red Thread always runs through its pages—not just as the title of this column, but as a symbol of the magazine’s purpose: a coherent narrative, issue after issue, offering insight and continuity in an ever-changing world.

The Natural Cycle of Cabinet Collapses
Jochem van den Bosch

Repeatedly over the past year, the Dutch government has teetered on the brink of collapse. This raises the question: how seriously should we take such threats? Since this is difficult to answer, let’s first examine how common government collapses in the Netherlands actually are.

The answer might surprise you. Of the last ten cabinets, only one (Rutte II) managed to complete its full term. The other nine, including the current government, fell prematurely or remain at risk of doing so. Cabinet collapses have become more frequent in recent decades compared to earlier periods. Public expectations have also shifted, with many now anticipating early government breakdowns. Notably, reports such as those on Srebrenica and the childcare benefits scandal (Toeslagenaffaire) have directly led to cabinet collapses, something that was unheard of in the past.

Governments in the Netherlands usually fall for one of two reasons: internal conflicts or tensions with parliament. Recent examples of internal disputes include the 2023 migration policy crisis, the Catshuis crisis that led to the fall of Rutte I in 2012, and the LPF crisis in 2002. On the other hand, conflicts with parliament have also proven fatal. Two well-known cases are the "Night of Schmelzer" in 1966 and the "Night of Wiegel" in 1999, complex events that, despite their dramatic nature, highlight the strategic and unpredictable nature of politics, much like a high-stakes game.

Sudoku’s
Lisanne Tigchelaar

Every time I travel by train or bus, I take my puzzle book with logic puzzles in it with me. In this book, there are also a lot of variations of Sudoku’s. Since I've been doing Sudoku’s a lot, I thought it would be fun to learn a bit more about it. Sudoku is more than just a pastime. It is a game that requires logic, patience and a sharp eye. Unfortunately, solving Sudoku will not make you smarter. However, it does stimulate certain cognitive skills.

Behind Sudoku’s lies a complex mathematical structure. Mathematicians use combinatorics and group theory to analyze the puzzles. They investigate questions such as: how many possible Sudoku solutions are there and what is the minimum number of given digits for a unique solution?

The number of possible Sudoku solutions is astronomically high, but the number of essentially different solutions is considerably smaller. Furthermore, it has been proven that a Sudoku with a unique solution must have at least 17 given digits. In addition, the difficulty of a Sudoku is not only determined by the number of given digits. A puzzle with few data can be simple, while a puzzle with many data can be complex. The difficulty depends on the logical steps needed to solve the puzzle.

Solving Sudoku puzzles is mathematically an NP-complete problem, meaning that solving them becomes increasingly difficult as the puzzle size increases. Sudoku puzzles can also be analyzed using graph theory, which converts the puzzle into a graph with vertices and edges. I found this particularly interesting, as it ties in very well with our study: EOR.

My conclusion about Sudoku’s is therefore: there is quite a lot of interesting and recognizable mathematics behind creating and analyzing Sudoku’s, and it is not just a simple puzzle that fills the time.

Taming the Bull
Cemre Suler

The 2025 Formula 1 season has just started, and we’re two races in. In a wet first race in Australia, Lando Norris won, with Verstappen close behind. In China, Piastri won with Max in fifth place. As it seems, the Red Bull is not performing that well this year. Adding to that claim, the other Red Bull driver Liam Lawson, also had a very difficult start to the season. He didn’t score any points and started last in both the China sprint and the feature race. As Red Bull is very critical of bad performance, they announced that Lawson will be replaced by Yuki Tsunoda from Japan,

After Gasly, Albon and Perez, Lawson also wasn’t able to perform in the Red Bull. People are starting to think that it’s not just about the quality of the driver, but because of the handling of the car. Even when the setup is perfect, which is hard to achieve in the first place, it is still difficult to drive. In the 2023 season, where Verstappen won almost every race, Perez suddenly stopped performing. The team did not listen to his criticisms of the car, because Max “just kept on winning” according to team boss Christian Horner. Later they said that they should have listened to Perez, as they continued developing the car on the wrong development path, which increased the issues. This was seen last season, where Red Bull finished third in the constructors championship.

The Red Bull car is known for being very responsive at the front, which suits Verstappen's aggressive driving style. Ex Red Bull driver Alexander Albon has compared the car with a computer mouse with the sensitivity set to the maximum, requiring incredible precision. It’s the question if any driver can drive this car like Verstappen can. In the upcoming races we will know if Yuki Tsunoda will be able to tame the Red Bull car, or if he will add himself to the list of drivers who weren’t able to challenge Verstappen.