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Last updated 26/12/2024

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About Origami by Martin Gardner: Article in Scientific American, July 1959
 
An article titled 'About Origami' was published in Martin Gardner's 'Mathematical Games' column in the July 1959 issue of Scientific American.

The author mentions both Lilian Oppenheimer's 'Origami workshop', the 'Oriagmian', and the Plane Geometry and Fancy Figures Exhibition which was held in New York at the Cooper Union Museum for the Arts and Decoration in the Summer of 1959, and which, from the timing, would seem to have inspired this article.

He also gives a brief outline of paperfolding history mentioning Miguel de Unamuno and Lewis Carroll, although much of this is inaccurate.

The article includes diagrams for the Pentagonal Knot, the See-Through Pentagram and the Flapping Bird, explains how to approximate a parabola and sets a calculus problem. (The solution, taken from the August 1959 issue, is reproduced at the foot of this page.)

He also mentions 'a fish that opens its mouth, a frog that hops when its back is stroked'. These are probably references to the Mazuma Fish and the Inflatable Frog.

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