30mins

1139: Quantum Superposition

| wonko

Schrödinger’s Cat, as a thought experiment, states that if you seal a cat in a box with something that can eventually kill it, you won’t know if the cat is alive or dead until you open the box. So, until you open the box and observe the cat, the cat is simultaneously dead and alive.

We often use Schrödinger’s thought experiment to explain the concept of superposition. The experiment states that a hypothetical cat is locked in a box with some radioactive substance controlling a vial of poison. When the substance decays, it triggers a Geiger counter that causes the poison to be released, thereby killing the cat.

Since the box is locked, and we on the outside don’t know whether or not the radioactive substance has decayed and released the poison, we can’t tell if the cat is dead or alive. So, until we open the box to know for sure, the cat is both dead and alive. Mathematically speaking, there’s a 50 percent chance the cat is dead and a 50 percent chance the cat is alive. Source.

This is Sebastien Limet’s Shrodinger Square, a delicious exercise in folding a figure then hiding it inside another structure. I folded this in baking paper, and it is a little too transparent I think (I tried it in printer paper and it was too thick and opaque).

I like that the cat is made of the body and tail at opposite ends of the 5:1 sheet, closing and locking it brings the two pieces together in silhouette. Clever.

1050: Kunsulu’s Music Stand

| wonko

When I saw the folded form I thought there must be some trickery here:

Kunsulu's Music Stand

All I had access to is the crease pattern (CP) for this model, and, given I am trying to develop my CP solving skills I thought it fair game to give it a try.

Kunsulu's music stand development

Based on a 16×16 grid, some strategic box pleating and an ingenious colour change we have a classic music stand, 3 shapely legs and a piece of sheet music that is a different colour to the stand – magic.

Kunsulu's music stand views

I like this model a lot – it just sort of coalesced in to a successful model for me, although the first fold was on paper that was same both sides but I could see the potential for colour change and had to fold it in duo paper,

1019: Mi Wu’s 7 Segment Display

| wonko

I remember folding another LED display, but cannot remember whose. This is a really efficient use of a single 15cm square to make a fully functional LED-style 7-segment digit:

Mi Wu's 7 segment display

The real skill here is hiding away the colour into flaps arranged symmetrically around the edge of the rectangular piece, so that you can open them out and change what is shown.

Continue reading →

705: (155/365) Jo Nakashima’s Monkey

| wonko

This adorable cheeky monkey is a masterpiece of design:

Using the back colour of the paper to highlight the face and ears, then working a nice body, lovely long tail and all. Continue reading →

694: (144/365) Hump Day

| wonko

So it is Wednesday, ‘Hump Day‘:

Silly season in the assessment calendar, lots happening and a 2do list from hell.

This is Eduardo Clemente’s ‘Camel’ – a dromedary or bactrian (who knows the difference?) Continue reading →

665: (115/365) The Last Post

| wonko

I am not sure what it is about the music, but “The Last Post” always gets to me:

After visiting Gallipoli 2 years ago (nearly to the day), and the Canberra war memorial last year, this is never more true. The tune is haunting, desperately sad and intimately bound up with a remembrance of Australian and New Zealand troops (originally) but more recently with all armed force personnel from all wars, police actions and conflicts.

I am always, oddly, extraordinarily anxious when it is played live. I feel for the trumpeter as the tune has no where to go – when the note is wrong it is so terribly uncomfortable. I am particularly in awe of the students that play it in front of the whole school. James did it proud yesterday at a school assembly. I get goosebumps thinking about it, but I always have. Continue reading →

553: (3/365) Yamaguchi’s Giant Panda

| wonko

Apparently Pandas are endangered – seems they have lost their mojo (or are perhaps shy and do not like being observed so closely by people):

This is Makoto Yamaguchi’s Giant Panda – a lovely 2 part model made for bi-colour origami paper, folded from one of my Tanteidan Magazines. In deciding whether I would attempt another 365, I began looking through my stack of JOAS and BOS magazines and found dozens of un-attempted models – that sort of greenlighted the project to an extent. Continue reading →

Segway V2

| wonko

I was recently asked how I folded my Segway model because someone wanted one. I was loathed to part with my original and to be honest I had no idea, I just folded it, so decided to revisit the model (which seems unique in the origami community) and see if it can be methodologised:SegwayV2

Originally I folded in 32nds, but decided in re-working the model 24ths work better, and are easy folding once you have thirds. The balance was always consuming enough paper for the body to leave enough for the control stalk which splits at the top. My original cheated because the proportions were off ( so I sneakily cut a strip off to shorten it) but on 24ths, it just works. Continue reading →

498: Koh’s Rabbit

| wonko

Every so often a model emerges that has such a naturalistic form that so perfectly represents the subject. This lovely rabbit, designed by Ronald Koh is one such “must fold” figure:498Kohrabbit

This lovely model is a dense fold (the hind quarters are necessary layer-dense to form the necessary flaps for the head), so thin paper is best – I failed on a 14.5cm square of coarse hand-made paper – it was too thick and my fat clumsy fingers could not tease the details but 20cm+ squares of most papers should be fine. Continue reading →