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OrigamiOrigamiOrigamiOrigami
3/16/2012 Evan Dastin-van Rijn, Adam Hamama, Michael Slutsker

Question: Which origami structure supports the most weight? Background Information: Origami is the art of paper folding. Ori means fold and gami means paper. An origami structure is called a model, the method to make a model is called a design, the instructions to create and origami model is called a set of diagrams, and an origami artist is called a paper folder. In each diagram valley folds lines (folds that slope down) are blue, mountain fold lines (folds that slope up) are red, and references are green (references arent normally necessary for the model). Wu, Joseph. "What Is Origami?" Joseph Wu's Origami Page. Nancy Wu, 1994. Web. 11 Jan. 2012. <http://www.origami.as/home.html>.

Hypothesis: Sonobes Cube will support the most weight. Materials: Origami paper of varying sizes, Bricks of varying masses, scotch tape, scissors, and a scale. Procedure: 1. Assemble the materials. 2. Fold the forms (Evan's Prism, Sonobe's Cube, Sonobe's Hexahedron, Marc Vigo Anglada's Octadhedron, and Robin Glynn's Heart Box).

3. Pick a form. 4. Put a 100g weight on the form. 5. Continue increasing the weight on the form until it collapses. 6. Record the weight that the form could hold up before it collapsed. 7. Make a second form of each form. 8. Put the weights on the form until it can hold up the weight for an hour plus. 9. Repeat steps 3-6, and 8 on all the other forms. Data: Variables: Control: Unused folded models. Independent Variable: Kind of origami structure. Dependent Variable: Amount of force/ weight withstood. Evan's Prism: Size of square 21x21cm Max weight held Pieces of up Paper 12 kg 2 Time held up 12kg = 5s 8kg = more than an hour

Two Sonobe's Hexahedrons: Size of Square 21x21cm Max weight held up 8kg Pieces of Paper 6 (both combined) Time held up 8kg = 12s 4 kg = more than an hour

Sonobe's Cube: Size of square 21x21cm Max weight help up 4 kg Pieces of Paper 6 Time held up 4kg = 10m 3kg = more than an hour

Robin Glynn's Heart Box: Size of Rectangle Max weight held up Pieces of Paper 2 Time held up 4kg= more than an hour

29.5x10.5cm 4kg

Marc Vigo Anglada's Octahedron: Size of Square 21x21cm Max weight held up 100g Pieces of Paper 1 Time held up 100g = 5m 50g = more than an hour

Pictures: Eight kilos on Evans Prism:

Four kilos on Robin Glynns Heart Box:

Four kilos on Sonobes Cube:

Four Kilos on Two Sonobes Hexahedrons:

Crease Pattern: Evans Prisms Crease Pattern:

Robin Glynns Heart Boxs Crease Pattern:

Marc Vigo Angladas Octahedrons Crease Pattern:

Sonobe Units Crease Pattern:

Analysis: We know that Evans Prism could hold up the most weight because of the structure of its lock folds (folds that kept the two pieces together). Unlike all
Picture 1

the other forms Evans Prisms lock folds were rectangles. These rectangular lock folds allowed both the pieces to fit together perfectly which caused the form to push out instead of buckling inwardly (picture 1, the lock folds are yellow highlighted). It also had four small points on the top and bottom that pushed up and down when under pressure which allowed for extra support (picture 2, the folds for the points are highlighted yellow). The pockets where both lock folds interlocked, were just the right size and fit snugly with the lock fold (picture 3, the triangle in the middle of the form is inside the pocket, the pocket is rectangular and is hollow). Both the Sonobes Two Hexahedrons and Sonobes Cube used the same pieces to create the form but Sonobes Two Hexahedrons could hold up more weight because it was made up of two more compact forms with the same amount of paper. The Sonobes Two
Picture 3

Picture 2

Picture 4

Hexahedrons also had an extra fold diagonally in each unit which allowed it to be more compact and thus hold up more weight (picture 4, the green line is the extra mountain fold in each unit). Sonobes Two Hexahderons were normally smaller than the six piece Sonobes Cube, but when combined were less hollow than the cube even though the form was bigger. This made the form more compact and strong. The pocket for each unit was only large enough for half of each unit and thus the pieces could easily slip out under pressure (picture 5 and 6, the highlighted area is the pocket itself, if you look at picture 6 you will notice that the lock fold
Picture 6 Picture 5

only has half of its area inside the pocket). This made the pockets inferior to those of Evans Prism. Robin Glynns Heart Box was different from all the other forms because it called for a rectangle and used no lock folds. The Heart Box used a combination
Picture 7

of two units that were slightly different in size and design. Since it was a box it had no need for lock folds because both halves completely enveloped eachother. The crease pattern for the form was also asymmetrical even though the actual form was symmetrical (picture 7, you can easily see that only one section is assymetrical and this section in question is used to keep the model together). The assymetrical part of the paper was put into a

pocket on the top/ bottom of the model which strengthened the top and bottom of the model. The weakest of the forms, Marc Vigo Angladas Octahedron, was only one
Picture 8

piece of paper and used no real lock folds. In the final step of the model, four flaps were folded over each other to keep the model together. This did not provide a strong top to the model. The model was also sloppily designed in a way that it had too much excess paper. The crease pattern shows that it was built to be ornamental (picture 8, we see that certain parts of the paper are folded behind to create a hexagon and later on in the design this is also folded behind to make an octagon). The main part of the model is actually within the octagon. This means that this model can be created from an octagon using much less paper instead of wasting 2/3 of the square in the creation of the model. If Marc Vigo Angladas Octahedron was indeed folded from the correct geometric figure it would have been a stronger form.

Conclusion: Upon review of our hypothesis, we see that we were wrong. The strongest form was not Sonobes Cube but Evans Prism. Evans Prism was the strongest form after all because it had better lock folds and pockets, was more compact, and had more support around the model. We thought the cube would be strongest because we thought that cubes were most commonly used structure in architecture, of all the forms tested, and would be strongest. This assumption was wrong. Sonobes Cube used six units while Evans Prism used two which led to a more compact model. If we were to do this experiment again we would have used an octagon instead of a square in the creation of Marc Vigo Angladas Octahedron. From this experiment we learned that origami designs could be used in architecture and could even strengthen and reduce the amount of material needed. Errors: 1. None of the papers we used were exact squares because we had to cut them from A4 rectangles. Thus the folding could have been inexact. 2. For the test on Sonobes Cube we put more weight on in the middle of the experiment so we had to redo it.

Going Further: If we had time to continue with this project we would have looked at making industrial structures using origami methods/ designs/ forms to make the structures use less material while still being strong and strengthen the structures. We would use benefits from Evans Prism such as the extra support when under pressure, the use of triangles for more support, and two corresponding units of equal strength. Bibliography: Glynn, Robin. Heart Box. Digital image. Dev Origami. Mar. 2001. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://dev.origami.com/>. Anglada, Marc Vigo. Octaedre. Digital image. Dev Origami. 2004. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://dev.origami.com/>. Peters, A. K. "Sonobe Variations." A K Peters LTD. A K Peters LTD. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <akpeters.com>.