A Father-Son Team Solves a Geometry Problem With Infinite Folds
After their 2015 success, the researchers set out to use their flattening technique to address all finite polyhedra. This change made the problem far more complex. This is because with non-orthogonal polyhedra, faces might have the shape of triangles or trapezoids—and the same creasing strategy that works for a refrigerator box won’t work for a pyramidal prism.In particular, for non-orthogonal polyhedra, any finite number of creases always produces some creases that meet at the same vertex.“That messed up our gadgets,”…