Title:  Mathematics of origami

Speaker:  Dr. Roger Alperin, San Jose State University

Abstract:  The combinatorics of origami alignments leads to rules for allowable folds. These rules can be interpreted as axioms for geometrical constructions in the plane.  The geometry constructions are more powerful than Euclidean constructions by ruler and compass. This leads to questions about what is possible to construct with origami folds. Sidelights include aspects of numbers and curves, trisection of an angle, pentagons without a compass, solving cubic polynomial by geometry.