Pieces and creases
|
Origami makes math more interesting.
|
Sssssnake away
HYDERABAD
Origami, the Japanese art of paper folding, clearly has some rules at play. The only requirement for origami is a piece of paper, making it one of the most accessible arts. Almost any paper may be used, but standard `origami paper' is thin, strong, and holds a crease very well. It is also usually white on one side and coloured on the other side, and is cut into 15 cm squares (about 6 inches). Anyone who has practised origami has probably, at one time or another unfolded an origami model and marvelled at the intricate crease patterns, which forms the `blueprint' of the fold. In these collections of creases when the paper is folded there is geometry at work.
The connection
Chethana, part of the Prism Educational Resource Centre and a forum for teachers and parents, held a lecture demonstration on Origami and Mathematics. The speaker was the principal of Chirec Public School, Rajyalakshmi Iyer, who has been an exponent of the art for many years. Addressing teachers and resource persons from various city schools, Rajyalakshmi introduced the topic, saying, "Teaching mathematics especially mensuration and geometry can be made interesting using origami. Any of the folds in this art reveal the properties of squares, triangles and parallelograms."
Folded beauty
The basic technique of origami is folding, and many complex folds have been developed. Rajyalakshmi demonstrated that the simplest fold is the valley fold, where a flat piece of paper is folded towards the paper folder. When this fold is unfolded, the crease line forms a valley shape. Closely related is the mountain fold, where the paper is folded away from the paper folder. This crease line forms an upraised ridge, or a mountain shape. Since these folds differ only in direction mountain folds are usually made by turning the paper over and folding a valley fold in the indicated position and then turning the paper over again. Certain combinations of basic folds form bases, starting shapes that may be used to fold many different models. The four most common bases, from simplest to the more complex, are the kite base, the fish base, the bird base, and the frog base.
Rajyalakshmi guided the teachers who were handed out sheets of paper, by demonstrating the folds while drawing on a board the properties of the figures created.
The teachers discussed rhomboids, trapeziums and cuboids all the while making notes on the formulae to fold at the end of which they had beautiful ashtrays, parrots, monkeys, dinosaurs, kangaroos and kites. So if geometry and all those volume, surface area and circumference formulae make you go into hiding, junk that logbook and grab a sheet of paper.
D.A
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Young World
