http://www.monkey.org/~aidan/
How about folding up a lot of panels, launching in a rocket to then unfold to make a big Fresnel lens for a space telescope.
http://www.langorigami.com/
https://lasers.llnl.gov/
https://lasers.llnl.gov/
Robert J. Lang is an expert on Origami and ways mathematics can be used to design new and complicated ways you fold paper or even hard panels.
Have you seen the 18 minute TED presentation?
http://www.ted.com/index.php/
[If you find that the file locks up you can also run the MP4 file
http://video.ted.com/talks/
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http://www.ted.com/speakers/
Origami, as Robert Lang describes it, is simple: "You take a creature, you combine it with a square, and you get an origami figure." But Lang's own description belies the technicality of his art; indeed, his creations inspire awe by sheer force of their intricacy. His repertoire includes a snake with one thousand scales, a two-foot-tall allosaurus skeleton, and a perfect replica of a Black Forest cuckoo clock. Each work is the result of software (which Lang himself pioneered) that manipulates thousands of mathematical calculations in the production of a "folding map" of a single creature.
The marriage of mathematics and origami harkens back to Lang's own childhood. As a first-grader, Lang proved far too clever for elementary mathematics and quickly became bored, prompting his teacher to give him a book on origami. His acuity for mathematics would lead him to become a physicist at the California Institute of Technology, and the owner of nearly fifty patents on lasers and optoelectronics.
Now a professional origami master, Lang practices his craft as both artist and engineer, one day folding the smallest of insects and the next the largest of space-bound telescope lenses.
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Do you use mathematical programming related software?
Are you familiar with Mathematica?
- LRK -
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http://demonstrations.wolfram.
Interactive Rings Tessellation
This demonstrates a rings-type origami tessellation. The left image is the crease pattern: mountain folds are solid black; valley folds are dashed magenta. The right side shows the folded form—the pattern you would get if you folded the crease pattern from translucent paper. The controls affect various parameters that define the design.
Contributed by: Robert J. Lang
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http://mathworld.wolfram.com/
Origami
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So the next time you are frustrated by trying to make those creases and folds with a piece of paper, just think, you might be designing a large space structure to be launched in a small package. lofted to space on a rocket. Maybe your kids can solve the problem. :-)
http://www.paperfolding.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/
Thanks for looking up with me.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg
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