  The ropelength of a knot is the quotient of its length by its thickness. We
consider a family of energy functions for knots, depending on a power p, which
approach ropelength as p increases. We describe a numerically computed trefoil
knot which seems to be a local minimum for ropelength; there are nearby
critical points for the p-energies, which are evidently local minima for large
enough p.
