Origami & Folding
what one sheet can do
Field

Axioms and construction

What a single fold can do, and why folding reaches numbers that a straightedge and compass cannot.
axiom 1through two pointslinearaxiom 2point onto pointlinearaxiom 3line onto linelinearaxiom 4through a point, square to a linelinearaxiom 5point onto a line, through a pointquadraticaxiom 6two points onto two linescubicaxiom 7point onto a line, square to a linelinearthe degree each axiom can solve — one of them is why paper beats the compass

One fold at a time, and there are exactly seven of them

A fold is specified by bringing points and lines into coincidence. There are seven ways to do that, the list is provably complete, and one of the seven does something no compass can.

 hh/263°42.0°21.0°a third of 63° is 21.00° — the fold found it, nothing was drawn at a thirdthe corner reaches the lower crease and the marked point reaches the ray at the same instantmountainvalley

Folding beats the compass, by exactly one degree

Straightedge and compass solve quadratics. A single fold solves cubics. That one-step difference settles two problems Greek geometry could not, and leaves a third exactly as impossible as it was.

 3 equal partsestimated by eyethe left-hand divisions are exact — a consequence of the fold, not of carethe right-hand ones are a guess, and the error compoundsvalleymountain

Dividing without measuring

A square can be divided into any whole number of equal parts by folding alone — exactly, with no ruler, and with no error to accumulate. The construction is one fold and a theorem nobody expected.

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