Talks: Computational Origami

Saturday - May 18th, 2024 4:15 p.m.-4:45 p.m. in Ballroom BC

Presented by:

Description

What's the best thing you can do with a piece of paper?

I'm not talking about paper planes or dragons (or even Mr. Napkin Head). The elegant art of paper folding can be harnessed to perform surprisingly powerful calculations. From a handful of basic folding axioms, we will construct computational systems to solve a wide range of problems. Starting with basic arithmetic operations, we will build up to tackling cubic equations and even proofs of irrationality.

I'll be simulating the fold sequences in a custom Python library, but feel free to bring a sheet of paper to follow along.