Wednesday, September 23, 2009

a bit more origami



This is just a footnote to an earlier post on origami.

There is a really nice TED talk by Robert Lang where he explains why we like to use mathematics to solve problems (like, how to make paper bugs with legs): it lets us have dead people do our work for us. A bit more blunt than the "standing on the shoulders of giants" metaphor, but same idea. A similar talk is available here, courtesy of the MAA. The Between the Folds blog recently pointed out a nice online National Geographic article and blog post on origami that touch on points that are developed a bit more fully in the Lang lectures.

Finally, here is a trio of great origami blogs: The Fitful Flog, Origami Tessellations, and Student Flotsam and Origami Jetsam.