Some Notes on Paper Folding

Xah Lee, 2006-05-11

If you grew up in Asia, you would know about paper folding. Most kids do. Here are some things i've learned since i was in grade school in Taiwan (1980s).

Torpedo Boat

Steps: 1, 2, 3.

Canoe

Steps: 1, 2, 3, 4. (Fold a rectangular paper in half. On one side, fold the two corners inward, then the bottom up. Do this one more time. Do the same thing for the other side. Flip the whole thing into a canoe.

Sail Boat

Steps: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

• torpedo submersible. (forgot how to make it)

Others

• ball
• crane
• frog
• a east/south/west/north thing
• a flat thing that loudly pop open when swung.

For more info about paper-folding, see

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_paper_folding
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origami
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics_of_paper_folding
• http://members.aol.com/ukpetd/trad19.htm
• A modular paper-folding of polyhedrons, with instructions, by Meenakshi Mukerji, 2001. http://home.comcast.net/~meenaks/diagrams/
• Various articles and instructions and math aspects of paper-folding. By Thomas Hull. 2005. http://kahuna.merrimack.edu/~thull/origamimath.html

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