Folding Steel
This is an amazing application of origami: a steel grocery bag that can fold flat!
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/03/paper-plastic-or-steel.html
Although you probably wouldn’t want to carry these to the store with you, this result could have real applications in industrial packaging. In addition, it’s another step towards the mathematical-origamist’s dream: designing building that can rearrange and rebuild itself as needed!
A great talk by Erik Demaine on mathematical origami opened my eyes have this amazing application of mathematics, and my students and I have been having a lot of fun with folding ever since!
3 Comments
Nikita Zolotykh · April 30, 2011 at 5:47 pm
Yes! I actually saw something mathematically cool (this) on my own before you posted it on your blog.
Interesting application, though. I stumbled upon it while I was researching about Map Folding (another seemingly useless topic of origami that probably has some surprising applications).
MrHonner · April 30, 2011 at 6:17 pm
I was thinking a lot about map folding as I was driving across the country over spring break. Not in any productive mathematical way, just how annoying it was to unfold and refold the road map over and over again, never doing it the same way twice.
whitecorp · January 25, 2012 at 12:30 am
Titanium is far lighter, perhaps a bag made out of that would prove to be a very robust shopping accessory. Peace.