How to Fold It: The Mathematics of Linkages, Origami, and Polyhedra

by Joseph O'Rourke

What do proteins and pop-up cards have in common? How is opening a grocery bag different from opening a gift box? How can you cut out the letters for a whole word all at once with one straight scissors cut? How many ways are there to flatten a cube? With the help of 200 colour figures, author Joseph O'Rourke explains these fascinating folding problems starting from high school algebra and geometry and introducing more advanced concepts in tangible contexts as they arise. He shows how variations on these basic problems lead directly to the frontiers of current mathematical research and offers ten accessible unsolved problems for the enterprising reader. Before tackling these, you can test your skills on fifty exercises with complete solutions. The book's website, http://www.howtofoldit.org, has dynamic animations of many of the foldings and downloadable templates for readers to fold or cut out.

Genres: Origami, Mathematics, Art, Reference

192 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 31, 2011

Reviews

[James Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

"How to Fold it" is a collection of mathematical morsels that center on folding beams and paper. These are sketches of the rules that govern such domains as protein folding and origami, with all detail and formalism omitted. Throughout each brief chapter there are puzzles and problems for the reader to work out to test understanding, none of which require math heavier than high school geometry. (You may need scissors.)

No topic gets very deep, but there is an annotated bibliography to guide your further research and interest.

This book was on my wish-list because I was interested in the folding of papercraft and boxes. Only some of the material bears directly on these topics, but most of all I have more information on where to look.