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Hexaflexagons [video] (2012)

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Re: Hexaflexagons [video] (2012)

#11
I saw a reference to Martin Gardner's article when I was in, maybe, 9th grade.

So I went to the main branch of the NY public library ("reading between the lions") and looked up the article on microfiche. It was fascinating and fun - from how to make a row of equilateral triangles with nothing more than a ruler, pen and paper. Many, many hours were spent on the various flexagon derivatives.

Years later, I made a JS page to combine images and print hexaflexagons for my son's classmates. Had some fun with that as well; it was much more confounding than I expected.

Nowadays, microfiche is gone, the public library is unfortunately not in most kids vernacular, and the attention span that would be required to enjoy doing the math I did has been hijacked. (TikTok !== figure-out-flexagon)

Re: Hexaflexagons [video] (2012)

#12

Are there any practical applications to this, like making nanoscale structures that can change particle or surface properties? What's the smallest possible structure that enables bending? This looks like one of those mundane problems that yields unexpectedly impactful applications, like moiré pattern and magic angle graphene.

I do not how practical but maybe a business card with different bits of information depending on how it is folded.

Re: Hexaflexagons [video] (2012)

#13

I saw a reference to Martin Gardner's article when I was in, maybe, 9th grade. So I went to the main branch of the NY public library ("reading between the lions") and looked up the article on microfiche. It was fascinating and fun - from how to make a row of equilateral triangles with nothing more than a ruler, pen and paper. Many, many hours were spent on the various flexagon derivatives. Years later, I made a JS pa…

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Re: Hexaflexagons [video] (2012)

#14

I saw a reference to Martin Gardner's article when I was in, maybe, 9th grade. So I went to the main branch of the NY public library ("reading between the lions") and looked up the article on microfiche. It was fascinating and fun - from how to make a row of equilateral triangles with nothing more than a ruler, pen and paper. Many, many hours were spent on the various flexagon derivatives. Years later, I made a JS pa…

TikTok has a lot of creative content on flexagons:

https://www.tiktok.com/tag/flexagon

It’s also not intended for long-form content, which is fine. If someone is super interested in the topic, related math, etc — easy to find information elsewhere using search engine and the short videos are much more likely to get someone’s attention.

Re: Hexaflexagons [video] (2012)

#18

I saw a reference to Martin Gardner's article when I was in, maybe, 9th grade. So I went to the main branch of the NY public library ("reading between the lions") and looked up the article on microfiche. It was fascinating and fun - from how to make a row of equilateral triangles with nothing more than a ruler, pen and paper. Many, many hours were spent on the various flexagon derivatives. Years later, I made a JS pa…

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your comment is agephobic
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