from Hacker News

A world from a sheet of paper (2023) [video]

by jhncls on 3/13/24, 7:21 PM with 17 comments

• by redbell on 3/13/24, 11:04 PM

  A truly competent mathematician with an exceptional sense of humor while presenting stuff! Never thought math could be fun during lectures, but I changed my mind now.

  The experiment at around 2:21 is mind-blowing. We used to see these tricks played by some professionals on TV or during some events, but this is the first time I have seen one from a mathematical background.

• by chamanbuga on 3/13/24, 9:17 PM

  What a wonderful lecture. Thank you for sharing. What a treat to be able to consume such high quality knowledge for free online.

• by samstave on 3/14/24, 12:15 AM

  So I just spent the last hour while watching this attempting to get a python script with a menu to ask me size and shape for the tesselation then it spits out an SVG or PNG to print the patterns for folding the Miuri Ori lines (round, sq, rec, hex)

  still fiddling with it.

  I had GPT go learn tesselations from:

  https://origami-resource-center.com/origami-tessellations/

  to add them to the pattern maker...

  Fun.

• by talkingtab on 3/14/24, 2:30 AM

  My definition of cool is something that changes how you see the world.

  I will never look at a piece of paper the same way again.

  And as an added bonus, the issue about asking questions and guessing is outstanding.

• by pushedx on 3/14/24, 6:44 AM

  Another great lecture from Tadashi: https://youtu.be/pkfDYOZ1p4Y

  This interview with him on his life and background is also fascinating: https://youtu.be/qrJCm10ajJw

• by paulpauper on 3/13/24, 11:33 PM

  Starting from just a sheet of paper, by folding, stacking, crumpling, sometimes tearing, Tadashi will explore a diversity of phenomena, from magic tricks and geometry through elasticity and the traditional Japanese art of origami to medical devices and an ‘h-principle’. Much of the show consists of table-top demonstrations, which you can try later with friends and family.

  So, take a sheet of paper. . .

  Tadashi Tokieda is a professor of mathematics at Stanford. He grew up as a painter in Japan, became a classical philologist (not to be confused with philosopher) in France and, having earned a PhD in pure mathematics from Princeton, has been an applied mathematician in England and the US; all in all, he has lived in eight countries so far. Tadashi is very active in mathematical outreach, notably with the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences.

• by vehicles2b on 3/14/24, 11:04 AM

  The first time I watched this video I folded a strip of paper into a pentagon as demonstrated. What a surprise! The pentagon looked perfect. With a bit more effort, I next folded a heptagon that looked nearly as good. Haven’t gotten the Miura fold to work yet.