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Extended Essay the Mathematics Behind Flat-Folding Origami and the Miura Fold

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Extended Essay the Mathematics Behind Flat-Folding Origami and the Miura Fold Extended Essay Mathematics The mathematics behind flat-folding origami and the Miura fold. Research question: What are the mathematical properties of the Miura fold that allow flat-folding, and how can the Miura fold be applied? Candidate number: 000858 0053 Session: May 2020 Extended Essay: Mathematics Word Count: 3997 Extended Essay Mathematics May 2020 Table of contents INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................ 3 RESEARCH QUESTION ....................................................................................................................................... 3 MATHEMATICAL PROPERTIES OF THE MIURA FOLD ......................................................................................... 3 WHY DO MIURA FOLDS FOLD FLAT? ....................................................................................................................... 6 Kawasaki’s theorem ................................................................................................................................ 7 Maekawa’s theorem ................................................................................................................................ 8 Bird’s foot forcing ................................................................................................................................... 9 APPLICATION OF THE MIURA FOLD ................................................................................................................ 12 THE AREA OF A FOLDED MIURA VERTEX ................................................................................................................ 15 UNCOMPLICATING THE FOLDED FIGURE ................................................................................................................. 17 Proof of cos2(arctan(x)) = 1/(1+x2) ........................................................................................................ 21 FINALIZING THE FUNCTION................................................................................................................................. 24 EXPANDING BEYOND ONE VERTEX ........................................................................................................................ 27 APPLYING THE FUNCTIONS ................................................................................................................................. 30 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................................. 35 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................................... 37 Page 2 of 37 Extended Essay Mathematics May 2020 Introduction I have had a fascination with origami ever since I learned how to fold a paper-frog in elementary school. This fold stood out to me for two reasons: when you pressed the back-end of the frog it did a little jump, and it could also be pressed between the pages of my books and brought home without any damage to the shape, unlike other types of origami. More recently I looked into origami with renewed interest, which is how I found the Miura map-fold. The Miura fold is a fascinating piece of origami, as it can both be folded flat, like the frog, and be opened or closed in a singular motion, giving it a dynamic elegance. This way of folding piqued my interest and led me into the world of flat-folding origami and origami algebra. Wanting a more practical approach as well, I had the idea of looking into how the Miura fold could be incorporated into a product design in order to utilize its unique properties. This investigation will introduce the concept of the Miura fold, explore the two main theorems within origami algebra related to flat-folding, and apply the characteristics of the Miura fold to a possible design of a foldable sleeping-mat. Research question What are the mathematical properties of Miura folds allowing flat-folding, and how can the Miura fold be applied? Mathematical properties of the Miura fold Flat folding origami are pieces of origami where the final folded paper can be pressed flat without creating new creases or ruining old ones. In these types of origami folds, there are only two types of creases: the mountain crease and the valley crease (Hull, 1994). By representing the valley creases with dotted lines and the mountain creases with whole lines, a map of the creases of the fold can be created, as shown in Figure 1 and 2. Page 3 of 37 Extended Essay Mathematics May 2020 Figure 1: A flat-folding origami frog Figure 2: Crease map of a flat-folding origami frog One type of flat-folding origami is the Miura fold, also called the Miura map-fold and the Miura-ori. The fold was invented in 1985 by Koryo Miura, a Japanese astrophysicist (Garcia, 2017). A Miura fold, as it will be referred to in this essay, is a type of origami fold used to fold flat surfaces into flat folds of smaller surface-area. As with most origami, paper is most commonly used for this. The crease pattern of a Miura fold will look like the one in Figure 3. Figure 3: Crease map of a Miura fold Page 4 of 37 Extended Essay Mathematics May 2020 The crease map consists of rows of slanted parallelograms. Where four parallelograms meet, there is a vertex consisting of exactly four joined creases. These vertices either have three mountain creases and one valley crease or three valley creases and one mountain crease. Adjacent rows of parallelograms are slanted in opposite directions, causing the adjacent rows of vertices to look like they are “pointed” in opposite directions (Figure 4). Figure 4: Vertex pointing to the left (left) and vertex pointing to the right (right) When folded, the parallelograms combine to form parallelogram- or trapezoid-shapes, sometimes with small triangular gaps, as shown in Figure 5 and 6. Figure 5: Parallelogram-shape with gaps (left) and without gaps (right) Figure 6: Trapezoid-shape with gaps (left) and without gaps (right) What is perhaps most notable about the Miura fold is its so-called shape memory. When unfolded, it can be “re-folded and returned to its compact shape” much more easily than other origami folds, flat-folding or not (Garcia, 2017). In the case of the Miura fold, it can be unfolded and re-folded with one diagonal motion between two opposing corners (Figure 7). Page 5 of 37 Extended Essay Mathematics May 2020 Figure 7: Re-folding a Miura fold in one diagonal motion This characteristic is part of what makes the Miura fold so interesting, as it has possible, and existing, applications that reach beyond just paper-folding. Before delving into that, I will look at the mathematical properties of flat-folding origami vertices and how these apply to the Miura fold. Why do Miura folds fold flat? Figure 8: Crease map of a Miura fold vertex Page 6 of 37 Extended Essay Mathematics May 2020 There are certain properties of the creases and angles at the vertices of flat-folding origami pieces that allow them to fold flat. These properties are described by two theorems, namely Maekawa’s theorem and Kawasaki’s theorem. Kawasaki’s theorem Kawasaki’s theorem states that a vertex can be folded flat if and only if the sum of the alternating angles around it is 180° (Demaine, 2010). Figure 9: Angles around a Miura fold vertex For the vertex in Figure 9 to be locally foldable, the following must be true: 훼 + 훾 = 180° 훽 + 훿 = 180° 훼 + 훾 − 훽 − 훿 = 0° In a single vertex of a Miura fold the angles α and β are supplementary and the angles γ and δ are supplementary. As all the parallelograms in a Miura fold are congruent, the angles α and δ are congruent and the angles β and γ are congruent. 훼 + 훽 = 훾 + 훿 = 180° 훼 = 훿 ∧ 훽 = 훾 훼 + 훾 = 훽 + 훿 = 180° 훼 + 훾 − 훽 − 훿 = 0° Page 7 of 37 Extended Essay Mathematics May 2020 Therefore, Kawasaki’s theorem holds true in all vertices of a Miura fold. Kawasaki’s theorem is a necessary condition for a Miura vertex to fold flat, but it is not sufficient to guarantee that it does. Although Kawasaki’s theorem reveals if the angles of a vertex facilitate local flat- foldability, it does not mention the folding pattern needed to achieve this flat fold. There is another theorem that narrows down the number of different mountain and valley crease combinations needed for the vertex to be flat foldable, namely Maekawa’s theorem. Maekawa’s theorem Maekawa’s theorem states that, when a vertex folds flat, the number of mountain creases and valley creases joined in the vertex always differ by two (Natural Origami, 2016). |푀 − 푉| = 2 As the Miura fold only has four creases joined at each vertex, it can have a combination of either three mountain creases/one valley crease or three valley creases/one mountain crease. In theory, this would allow for eight different combinations of mountain and valley creases. Figure 10: Crease maps of possible mountain/valley combinations in Miura fold vertices Page 8 of 37 Extended Essay Mathematics May 2020 Bird’s foot forcing Only six of these mountain and valley combinations are actually flat foldable. The vertices shown in Figure 10.a and 10.e cannot be folded flat. Figure 11: Crease map of a non-foldable Miura fold vertex Figure 11 shows a scaled-up version of Figure 10.a. In an attempt to fold this vertex according to the crease map, the surface P2 would have to be folded under P1 along l2 to create a mountain fold, while P3 would have to be folded under P4
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