Origami and Math 222
TheBoostedBrain writes "I found a nice site that explains a little bit about the math in Origami. Origami is one of my favorite hobbies, but I never thought about it being related to science."
He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him. -- Bion
Another Link (Score:5, Informative)
Computational Origami and protein folding (Score:5, Informative)
There's a 21 year old professor at MIT, Erik Demaine [mit.edu] who is interested in computational origami. Check out his page for some interesting papers and a story of some very untraditional education.
Re:Everything can be related to math. (Score:2, Informative)
Re: Pi (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Another Link (Score:3, Informative)
Re: Pi (Score:4, Informative)
It's a PDF (obviously), but that's the only good way I've found to express the formula.
Re:Everything can be related to math. (Score:2, Informative)
NOT (X) = NAND (x,x)
AND x y = not(nand(x,y))
OR = nand(not(x),not(y))
nor = not or
etc
the pattern of pi (Score:3, Informative)
http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/pi [bellard.free.fr]
And try this one if you can view raw postscript [cecm.sfu.ca].
Re: Pi (Score:5, Informative)
Honestly, some people...
Polygons from circles (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Origami pick-up lines (Score:3, Informative)
If you have access to a decent paper cutter, some wrapping paper makes good folding paper, as well.
And be really careful... I thought that was handy, too, until I started doing complex models. My first try on a rhino tore about 1/2 way through because of too-strong creasing. Not that I've gotten it right yet, but still.
Re: Pi (Score:3, Informative)
Although what matters is not finding *a formula* but an 'efficient' formula in some sense. The digits of pi are certainly computable and you can write a program to give any digit asked for. But can you do this without calculating the whole expansion of pi up to that point, or to put it in terms of time taken, can you write a program that does better than taking linear time in the 'depth' of the digit chosen?
About your second point - given two hex digits, how do you work out the corresponding decimal digit? Let's number the digits with zero for the digit immediately after the (hexa)decimal point. If I told you that the hex digits at positions 5 and 6 were 'A' and 'B', what decimal digit could you work out from that? Don't you need to know the preceding digits as well?
Re:Origami + Math = Tom Hull (Score:2, Informative)
Tom is definatly one of the leaders in this field. Those who haven't read his paper The Combinatorics of Flat Folds: a Survey [merrimack.edu] are missing out.
You might also check out Robert Lang's upcoming book Origami Design Secrets: Mathematical Methods for an Ancient Art [amazon.com]
Re:Modern origami artists familiar with math (Score:3, Informative)
Re: Pi (Score:2, Informative)
OK, in layman's terms:
You give me a line segment and call it a "unitary" segment (that is, you define your unit of measure to be the length of the line).
To construct sqrt(2), I can build (using only pencil, ruler and compass) a square with unitary sides and it's diagonal. This is analogous to your isosceles triangle. The length of the diagonal is sqrt(2) units.
To construct pi, I build a circle with unitary diagonal (again using only pencil, ruler and compass). The (length of the) circumference of the circle is pi units.
So, what's the difference? Well, the diagonal is a straight line, the circumference is not. You can construct straight lines which lengths are algebraic numbers, you cannot construct them with transcendental lengths.
Feynman invented Flexagons... (Score:2, Informative)