Discovering the

Geometric and
Algebraic
Foundations Behind
Computational
Origami





T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f A r k a n s a s
D e p a r t m e n t o f M a t h e m a t i c s
U n d e r t h e D i r e c t i o n o f
D r . B . M a d i s o n

4 / 2 6 / 2 0 1 2
Todd J . Thomas
This paper provides the basic template for Research
into the relativity new field of Computational Origami.
In this paper we define Computational Origami based
on the logic of the Euclidean Axioms and Algebraic
Structures. We show that not only is the metric space
in which this topology exists is well defined, but also
that it is complete and efficient. But the truly most
remarkable part is how we show that the real power
behind Origami Folding is how it takes us out of the set
of all Real Numbers and lets us fold our way in the set
of all Complex Numbers.

1
Contents
1.0 I NTRODUCTI ON 2
2.0 PRACTI CAL APPLI CATI ONS 2
2.1 Practical Applications in the Space Program .....................................................3
2.2 Practical Applications to Biology and Medicine ...............................................4
2.4 Current Real World Applications ......................................................................5
3.0 FOUNDATI ONS I N EUCLI DEAN GEOMETRY 5
3.1 Axiomatic Systems ............................................................................................5
3.2 Euclidean Axiom Set for Geometry ...................................................................6
3.3 Huzita-Hutori Axiom Set for Origami ..............................................................8
3.4 Linking Euclidean Constructions to Origami Folding .....................................11
3.5 Linking Origami Folding to Euclidean Constructions .....................................13
3.6 The Fundamental Difference ...........................................................................14
4.0 ORI GAMI FOUNDATI ONS I N ALGEBRA 15
4.1 Definitions from Algebra .................................................................................15
4.2 The Origami Pair..............................................................................................16
4.3 Foundations of an Origami Constructible Set ..................................................17
4.3 Origami Roots of Polynomials .........................................................................20
5.0 BEYOND EUCLI D 21
5.1 Folding Cube Roots .........................................................................................21
5.2 Solving the Classical Problem of Trisecting Any Angle .................................21
6.0 CONCLUSI ON 23
2
BI BLI OGRAPHY 24

1.0 I NTRODUCTI ON
Origami is known to most as the ancient J apanese art of paper folding which was
started by Buddhist Monks in the sixth century. The word origami is actualy a mash of
two J apanese words ori for folding and kami which means paper. This art form has
largely gone unnoticed by the sciences for nearly 2000 years; however, starting in the
early part of the 21
st
century physicist, medical researchers, and of course mathematicians
started finding solutions to real world problems hidden deep in the folds of this ancient
art form. As scientist and mathematicians started probing the basic foundations of
origami they have found a world of wonder just as intricate as the ancient art itself.

2.0 PRACTI CAL APPLI CATI ONS
Although computational and mathematical origami may be interesting to some
mathematicians, there is a practical aspect to this field of study as well. Real-world
problems that require large surfaces to be compacted into small spaces for transport, then
deployed reliably, are exactly the types of problems mathematical and computational
origami solves. Some of the most promising areas where this discipline can be applied
are the space program, medical sciences, and biology. Currently, the automobile industry
uses techniques from computational origami to keep people safer on the roads.
3

2.1 Practical Applications in the Space Program
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California has plans
to put a telescope into deep space, however; this is
not just any typical telescope. These forward-
thinking researchers are in the design phase of
engineering a deep space telescope with a 100-meter
aperture for deployment at some point in the future.
J ust for reference, the Hubble Space Telescope has
an aperture of a paltry 2.4 meters by comparison.
According to Dr. Robert Lang, an expert in Origami
Sekkei or Technical folding, the major problem these
researchers face is how to fit a lens that measures 100-
meters across into a shuttle or rocket transport whose
cargo bay is only a few meters wide (Wertheim, 2005). This is accomplished by treating
the lens like a laminar surface using hinges that follow along the crease lines. As shown
in Figure 1, the prototype of the lens was composed of 72 segments or panels made up of
sixteen rectangles, thirty-two right triangles, and twenty-four isosceles triangles. These
panels are then subdivided into eight petals each sweeping and area of 45 degrees. Each
petal consists of three isosceles triangles, four right triangles, and two rectangles (Heller,
2003). Likewise, Lang notes the solution to this problem and other similar problems
such as a 500-meter solar sail will require some type of folding on an unprecedented
scale. A first success using origamis came in 1995 when the Space Flight Unit, a
J apanese satellite, was launched into low orbit. Its solar arrays deployed utilizing an
Figure 1: The prototype lens is composed of
72 segments which are then divided into eight
petals. Each petal, one of which is
highlighted, sweeps 45 degrees or one-eighth
of the structure.
4
origami technique known as Muira-ori which has also been found to occur naturally in
leaves.

2.2 Practical Applications to Biology and Medicine
Medicine has its own set of unique problems, and researchers at Oxford
University, U.K. wanted to develop an artificial stent that could easily travel through the
circulatory system of a patient, but be large enough to hold open the collapsed artery once
it was put into place (World Science, 2007) Using an origami pattern call the
Waterbomb Base, they were able to develop a stent that when folded was a mere 12mm
and would easily pass through small capillaries for long distances without damaging the
stent or the patient. Upon reaching its destination it would then expand to 23 mm when
unfolded to hold open a collapsed artery and restore blood flow.

Aside from the naturally occurring Muira-ori technique as
discussed above, researchers at the Dana-Farber institute have
combined origami with nanotechnology to fold sheets of DNA into
different shapes, such as octahedrons, smaller than the thickness of a
human hair (The Scripps Research Institute, 2004). In the near future
these folded objects could be used to transport medicines directly into
a cell. According to Dr. William Shih, the lead researcher on this
project and assistant professor in the Biological Chemistry
Department, his group was able to fold DNA to make several
different shapes to include a genie bottle, two kinds of crosses, a
square nut, and a railed bridge (Shih, 2008)
Figure 2. An artificial
stent that uses the
origami patter
Waterbomb bases to
save human lives.
5
2.4 Current Real World Applications
At first thought the automobile industry may be a strange place to find the likes of
Dr. Robert Lang, an expert in Origami Sekkei, however; it seems that anyone who has
survived an automobile crash due to the deployment of the cars airbags is deeply
indebted Dr. Lang. Working with researchers
at EASi Engineering in Germany, Dr. Lang
developed a crease pattern that allows for a
three-dimensional polyhedron (the airbag) to
be folded into a flat surface that deploys
easily, completely, and at the proper pressure
within microseconds. Using an algorithm
dubbed the Universal Molecule that was created by Dr. Lang, it shows that there is little
difference between folding a three-dimensional polyhedron onto a flat plane and origami
folding a flat sheet into another flat polygon (Lang, 2004-2012). EASi was able
incorporate this research into their airbag design system which has been used by
automotive manufacturers all across the globe.

3.0 FOUNDATI ONS I N EUCLI DEAN GEOMETRY
3.1 Axiomatic Systems
In order to ensure that our origami system is consistent, we need to develop it as
an axiomatic system. Similar to the approach Euclid of Alexandria took with Geometry,
an axiomatic system is logical and will possess a set of axioms from which we can derive
other statements (Weisstein, 1999-2012). Furthermore, we shall strive for economy and
Figure 3. Using the Universal Molecule algorithm, Lang was able to
identify a crease pattern that is highly efficient for deploying airbags.
6
efficiency with our axioms, we want them to be independent, which means we do not
want to assume any axiom can be proven from the others. Lastly we want to make sure
that we can in-fact prove or disprove any statement about our system from the axioms
alone, that is we want to be able to say that our system is complete. The advantage to
having an axiomatic system is that once a set of fundamental axioms are determined, we
can then start deducing other properties (e.g., as lemmas and theorems) from within our
system, and thus construct a wholly consistent, independent, and complete origami
mathematical system.
3.2 Euclidean Axiom Set for Geometry
Over 2000 years ago Euclid of Alexandria approached geometry from an
axiomatic stand point as mentioned earlier. By using five independent postulates, Euclid
constructed a logical and consistent geometry from which all other geometric lemmas,
and theorems would later be derived. In this section we will recall and briefly discuss
these first five postulates, and then in Section 3.3 we will compare them to the postulates
of Mathematical Origami. A quick search of the internet reveals thousands of websites
devoted to Euclids Elements; however, we refer to the website of Dr. David E. J oyce of
Clark University, and his translation for the remainder of our discussion. Note that the
designations E1 to E5 are not part of Dr. J oyces work, but will be used in future sections
as references to the specific postulate:
(E1) Postulate 1. Let it have been postulated to draw a straight-line fromany
point to any point.
(E2) Postulate 2: And to produce a finite straight-line continuously in a straight-
line.
(E3) Postulate 3: And to draw a circle with any center and radius.
7
(E4) Postulate 4: And that all right-angles are equal to one another.
(E5) Postulate 5: That, if a straight line falling on two straight lines makes the
interior angles on the same side less than two right angles, the two straight lines,
if produced indefinitely, meet on that side which are the angles less than the two
right angles. (J oyce, 1996)

Postulates three and four are self-explanatory so we will not go into detail about these,
however for the other postulates we shall give a brief
interpretation. Postulate 1 (E1) gives us our first
construction using a straight edge. In this postulate,
Euclid is simply telling us that for any two points in a
plane we can use a straight edge to construct a straight
line (AB) between the two points. What he does not
explicitly say, but it is implied, is that line is also unique. In
Postulate (E2), given line segment AB, we can construct and extend the segment AB to
CD. It is interesting to note that Euclid does not tell us how far CD can be extended.
Postulate 5 (E5) is also known as the parallel postulate. Thus if we have two lines l and
m and then a third line t intersects both l and m, the two lines will intersect on the side
where the angle each line makes with the traversal is less than ninety degrees (J oyce,
1996). Starting exclusively with one of these five postulates, a system is considered
geometrically constructible if we can show that by starting at a given point/line/circle we
end up at another point/line/circle that makes up whatever geometric object we are
seeking.
Figure 4: I f two lines a and b are
parallel, then angle theta is equal
to angle beta.
8
3.3 Huzita-Hutori Axiom Set for Origami
Origami is the art of paper folding, and as most of us know from our elementary
school days, there are certain folds that just seem fundamental. For instance, we can fold
a straight line quite easily, however trying to fold a curve, although possible, is quite a
difficult undertaking, and nearly impossible to control. Since we are trying to establish a
link between Euclids postulates and origami, we will consider the folding of a curve to
be non-fundamental and exclude it for our purposes (Geretschlager, 1995). Now consider
an origami construction such as a crane. We start with a flat sheet of paper, a plane if
you will analogous to the Euclidean plane in geometry constructions. Whereas in
geometric constructions we start with a point, in an origami construction we start with a
fold, and as we develop our folds, a more complex object is formed. Of course when we
fold an origami object, we are going from the two dimensional plane to a three
dimensional object; however, after we have created an origami object we can then unfold
object and return the paper back into a plane. What we will then consider are the creases
that are left behind from the unfolded origami object. Thus since we wish to find a
relation between Euclidean constructions and origami constructions, we must first define
a set of allowed operations, similar to five postulates that Euclid defined for plane
geometry. The first six postulates were presented by Humiaki Huzita at the First
International Meeting of Origami Science and Technology in 1991 and a seventh one was
found by Koshiro Hutori in 2002. Although Huzita and Hutori were the first to present
their axioms that bear their names, it is important to note that in 1989 J acques J ustin
published a paper entitled Resolution par le pliage de lequation du troisieme degre et
applications geometriques, in which he accounted for seven combinations of alignments
9
(Lang, Huzita-J ustin Axioms, 2004). We will enumerate these postulates (O1),(O7) to
distinguish them from the Euclidean Axioms (E1),(E5).
(O1) Given two points p
1
and p
2
we can fold a line connecting them.

Figure 5
(O2) Given two points p
1
anu p
2
we can fold p
1
onto p
2
.

Figure 6
(O3) Given two lines l
1
anu l
2
we can fold linel
1
onto l
2
.

Figure 7
10
(O4) Given as point p
1
and a line l
1
we can make a fold perpendicular to l
1
that
passes through p
1
.

Figure 8
(O5) Given two points p
1
anu p
2
anu line l
1
we can make a fold that places
p
1
onto l
1
anu passes thiough p
2
.

Figure 9
(O6) Given two points p
1
anu p
2
anu two lines l
2
anu l
2
we can make a fold that
places p
1
onto l
1
anu p
2
onto l
2
.

11

Figure 10
(O7) Given a point p
1
anu two lines l
1
anu l
2
we can make a fold perpendicular
to l
2
that place p
1
onto l
1
.

Figure 11
These seven postulates constitute all the allowed folds for origami constructions.

3.4 Linking Euclidean Constructions to Origami Folding
Now we wish to show a linkage between the Euclidean postulates and the Huzita-
Hutroi postulates. We must be able to show that each of the Euclidean postulates (E1)-
(E5) can be replaced by a series or combination of origami postulates (O1)-(O7). Note
that for ease of use and standardization, we will draw a Euclidean construction and we
shall fold an origami construction. Thus we define our lemma
12

Lemma 1: The five Euclidean Postulates (E1)-(E5) can be replaced by
combinations of origami folding (O1)-(O7).
One can easily see that (E1) is identical to (O4), and similarly, (E2) is just an
extension of (O1).
(E3) Although we have chosen to not consider a circle in our origami
constructions, a circle is still be well defined if we know its center M and its radius r.
Thus this can be found by using several of our origami postulates.
Lets designate the center as M, and radius as p
1
p
2
. If these parts of a circle are
known, then we can fold the perpendicular bisector of Mp
1
. Suppose that the two lines
l
1
onJ l
2
in (O3) intersect at M, then we can fold the perpendicular bisector at M that
passes through p
1
.
(E4) and (O4) both produce perpendicular lines which by definition have an angle
between them of ninety degrees, thus both right angles are equal. Consider that the two
lines l
1
onJ l
2
in (E5) are not parallel; therefore we can find the unique point of
intersection of the two lines. Similarly (O3) we can fold a line through the point of
intersection of our two lines l
1
onJ l
2
in which that passes also through p
1
. Thus in
summary, we refer to Dr. Robert Geretschlager to fully develop our first theorem of our
Origami System.
THEOREM 1. Every construction that can be done by Euclidean construction can
also be accomplished by elementary origami folding. Specifically, we can use (O1)-(O7)
either directly or in combinations of elementary origami folds, to replace the Euclidean
postulates (E1)-(E5). (Geretschlager, 1995)
13
3.5 Linking Origami Folding to Euclidean Constructions
Now we must show that the origami folds (O1)-(O7) can be replaced by the
Euclidean postulates (E1)-(E5), with the exception of (O7) which we will need to look at
a little more closely.
Lemma 3.5.1: All of the origami folds (O1)-(O7) can be replaced by Euclidean
Constructions derived fromthe Euclidean postulates (E1)-(E5).
Recall from 3.4 that, (O4) is identical to (E1), and (O1) can be replaced with (E2).
Similarly, (O2) is replaced by (E1) as we may construct any point on a straight line. Now
we consider (O3), (O5), and (O6), which can easily be constructed by the mid-parallel for
(O3), and by basic construction of points for (O5) and (O6). Thus, since all of these
constructions are known by Geometrical methods, it follows that (O1)-(O6) can infact be
replace by (E1-E5).
(O7) gives us a little difficulty, but if we suppose that l
2
is the directix of a
parabola and that p
1
is the focus of the parabola, and then we make l
1
tangent to the
parabola. Thus if we know the Focus (p
1
) and we know the directix (l
2
), and also if we
know any point on the parabola T, we know that by the definition of a parabola that the
length from the focus (p
1
) to any point on the parabola (T) equals the distance from T to
the directix intersecting at (B). If we now construct Bp
1
, this is the diagonal of a
rhombus, Thus by constructing the other diagonal, starting at T and intersecting Bp
1
at a
right angle, continuing until it intersects the directix at S, then ST is tangent to the
parabola at point T. It is easy to see that ST is the perpendicular bisector of Bp
1
at K, thus
p
1
K = KB and since a ST is tangent is to the parabola, if we fold along ST then we will
place p
1
on the directix. This particular Euclidean construction is nicely laid out by Dr.
William Harter of the University of Arkansas in his book entitled, Modern Physics and
14
its Classical Foundations: A Geometric Introduction to Analysis of QuantumMomentum,
Energy and Action (Harter, 2012). Now we are ready to state our next theorem:
THEOREM 2. Any construction that can be completed using origami folds (O1)-
(O7), can also be constructed with straightedge and compass according by way of the
Euclidean postulates (E1)-(E5) (Geretschlager, 1995).
Since all of the Euclidean postulates can be replaced with origami folds, and all
origami folds can be replaced by Euclidean postulates, then the two systems must be
equivalent. Thus the set of all possible Euclidean constructions must be a subset of the
set of all possible constructions of origami folds.

3.6 The Fundamental Difference
We have shown that in order to analyze and compare Geometric Construction
with origami folding we had to define the procedures that were allowed. This set of
fundamental folds we have defined for our system are consistent, independent, and
complete. This assures us that origami constructions are in fact an axiomatic system. An
important fundamental difference between Euclidean constructions and origami folding is
the fact that for Euclidean constructions, the point is the most basic entity of the
construction, however in origami constructions the basic entity is the straight line. Thus
we have also shown that just as a point in Euclidean construction can be drawn anywhere
in the plane, so too can a straight line be folded anywhere on an origami space.

15
4.0 ORI GAMI FOUNDATI ONS I N ALGEBRA
4.1 Definitions from Algebra
In order to approach origami construction from an algebraic point of view, we
need to recall some standard definitions from Abstract Algebra. The following
definitions are taken directly from David S. Dummit and Richard M. Footes textbook
Abstract Algebra (Dummit & Foote, 2004)

Definition 4.1.1. A Group is an ordered pair (0,) where G is a set and is a
binary operation on G satisfying the following axioms:
(i) (o b) c = o (b c) o, b, c 0 i. c. , is associative.
(ii) There exist an element c in 0, called the identity of G, such that for all
o 0 we have o c = c o = o,
(iii) For each o 0 there is an element o
-1
of 0 called an inverse of o, such
that o o
-1
= o
-1
o = c.
(2) The group (0,) is called abelian (or commutative) if o b = b o for all o, b 0.
Definition 4.1.2. Let be any nonempty set and let S
H
be the set of all bijections
from to itself, then symmetric group S
H
is the set of all permutations of .

Thus if we consider x, y, z S
3
then we can express this group using set notation as

S
3
= {|x, y, z], |y, z, x], |z, x, y], |z, y, x], |x, z, y], |y, x, x]]

This set consist of all the permutations of {x, y, z]. It should also be noted for future
reference that the order of S
n
= n!

Definition 4.1.3. A ring R is a set together with two binary operations + and
(called addition and multiplication) satisfying the following axioms:
(i) (R, +) is an abelian group,
(ii) is associative : (o b) c = o (b c) for all o, b, c R,
(iii) The distributive laws hold in R : for all o, b, c R
(o + b) c = (o c) + (b c) and o (b + c) = (o b) + (o c).
(2) The ring R is commutative if multiplication is commutative.
(3) The ring R is said to have identity (or contains 1) if there is an element 1 R with
1 o = o 1 = o for all o R.

Definition 4.1.4. A field is a set F together with two commutative binary
operations + onJ on F such that (F, +) is an abelian group (with identity called 0) and
(F - {u], ) is also an abelian group, and the following distributive law holds:
16
o (b + c) = (o b) + (o c) for all o, b, c F.

Definition 4.1.5. The element o K is said to be algebraic over F if o is a root
of some nonzero polynomial (x) F|x]. If o is not algebraic over F (i.e., not the root
of any nonzero polynomial with coefficients in F) then o is said to be transcendental over
F.

Definition 4.1.6. A polynomial p(x) in any field F|x] is said to be irreducible
over F if its degree is less than or equal to one, and given a factorization, p(x) =
(x)g(x), with , g F|x], then ueg(g) = u.

Now that we have reviewed some necessary basics of Algebra we can continue our look
at origami constructions from an algebraic point of view.

4.2 The Origami Pair
Recalling our original origami axioms (O1)-(O7), we will now formalize these
folds in order to define an origami pair in the plane. We note that creases on the paper
are isomorphic to lines in a plane, and the corners of our paper are simply points where
our line creases shall meet (Auckly & Cleveland, 1995).
Definition 4.2.1. Let be a set of points and suppose that L is any collection of
lines such that , L R
2
. Then (, L) is an origami pair if
(Pi) For any two intersecting lines L
1
and L
2
, the point of intersection

1
.
(Pii) Given any two points
1,

2
there is a unique straight line L
1
that
passes through both points.
(Piii) Given a line segment with endpoints
1
and
2
in L, then the
perpendicular bisector of that segment L
1
is also in L.
(Piv) Let L
1,
L
2
L then a third line L
3
that is equidistant from both
L
1
onJ L
2
is also in L.
17
(P6) If L
1,
L
2
L then there exist an L
3
L, such that L
3
is a mirror
reflection of L
2
about L
1
.
Thus for any subset of the origami plane containing at least two points, there is at most
one collection of lines which will pair with it to become an origami pair (Auckly &
Cleveland, 1995).
4.3 Foundations of an Origami Constructible Set
Similar to how we can construct a set of Euclidean constructible numbers, we
want to be able to define set for origami constructible pairs. This is our end-goal, to
algebraically define a set that contains all the
origami constructible numbers using only the
allowed folds from our definition of origami pair,
which was derived from our origami postulates
(O1)-(O7). Let us first define the framework our
origami constructible set as a subset of the
complex numbers. Let us first construct the
complex plane using our origami folds. We will
suppose that our origami plane is infinitely large
and contains only two points 0 and 1. Now we
first apply (O1) to the point 0 and 1 to construct the real axis, then by applying (O4) to 1
we create L
2
perpendicular to the real axis. Similarly we apply (O4) to point 0 and the
real axis to construct the imaginary axis. Lastly if we apply (O5) to point zero, the we get
a line that interests the imaginary axis and passes through point 1. This intersection is the
number i.

0 1
i
Figure 12. An application of (O1), (O4), and
(O5), to create the complex plane.
18
Next we want to show that addition is possible through our origami constructions. Let us
start with our origami plane and three points 0, P
1
, P
2
.
Using the following series of steps we find that the
point p
3
= p
1
+ p
2
.
L
1
01(u, p
1
)
L
2
01(u, p
2
)
L
3
P1(p
2
, L
1
)
L
4
P1( p
1,
L
2
)
p
3
Intcrscct (L
3
, L
4
)
Multiplication is the next logical operation that is to be shown. Since we are in the
complex field, we know that(ob)(cJ) = oc +
(oJ + bc)i - bJ, thus by using properties of
similar triangles we can multiple a real number
r by p
1
as shown below
L
1
01(u, L
1
)
L
2
01(1, L
1
)
L
3
P1(L
2,
r)
p
2
Intcrscct(L
1
, L
3
)

We run into a problem if p
1
is a real number. We get around this issue by adding i to p
1
,
then multiply by r then project this product onto the real axis using (O4). Another issue
that arrives if we wish to multiply a number by i then we must employ a mathematical
trick and rotate it by
n
2
radians counterclockwise about zero, then we can employ the
following steps.
0
p
1
p
2
p
3

L
1

L
2

L
3
L
4

0
p
1
p
2

1
r
19
L
1
01(u, p
1
)
L
2
04(u, L
1
)
L
3
02(L
1,
L
2
)
p
2
P2(p
1
, L
3
)

Now that we can perform the basic binary operations of addition, subtraction,
multiplication by real number and multiplication by i, we can now combine these
operations to multiply by two complex numbers (King, 2004).

Inversion is the last of these operations that we need to define for our system. The
inverse of a complex number (a,b) is defined by
(u-b)
u
2
+b
2
. One will notice that inversion is
a very similar process to multiplication, and we will once again use the properties of
similar triangles to complete the inversion
process.
L
1
01(u, p
1
)
L
2
01(r, p
1
)
L
3
P1(1, L
2
)
p
2
Intcrscct(L
1
, L
3
)

J ust like with multiplication, we run into a
problem when p
1
is a real number; however, we
solve this problem in the same manner that solved it for multiplication.

0
p
1
p
2

1
r
20
4.3 Origami Roots of Polynomials
What we have shown up to this point is that our set of origami constructible
numbers contains the integers and the rational numbers. Similarly, the set of Euclidean
constructible number also contain the integers and rational numbers (Dummit & Foote,
2004). Thus the next logical step is to see what irrational numbers our origami set
contains. In Euclidean geometry we use the geometric mean to create square roots;
however this involves constructing a circle, which we have excluded for being a non-
elementary operation. We do have a method for a solution, recall that we can define a
unique circle if we know its origin and its radius. Thus before we take the square root of
a real number, consider the following equation [
x+1
2

2
= [
x-1
2

2
+ y
2
solving gives us
y=x. Now consider a circle centered at (u,
(-1)
2
) with radius
+1
2
. Notice that it will
intersect at p
3
= (r, u). Thus instead of
having to construct the circle we only need to
construct where it crosses the real axis, and
we do this by the following steps.
p
1
ir
p
2
[
p
2
-
2

L
3
0S(-i, p
2,
rcol oxis)
p
3
P2(-i, L
3
)

Suppose we wish to take the square root of a complex number p
1
, then we must first
bisect the angle between p
1
and the positive real axis obtaining the angle bisector L
1
then
we rotate p
1
onto the positive real axis using (O5) and (P2) to get the magnitude that is
both positive and real, and we will denote this point our new r. Now we can rotate p
2
back
p
2

0
p
1
p
3
1
r
i
L
3

21
to L
1
using (O5) and (P2) to obtain p
3
, which is the complex square root of p
1
(King,
2004).
5.0 BEYOND EUCLI D
5.1 Folding Cube Roots
We know that if we abide by the rules of Euclidean construction, we cannot
construct any roots of a higher degree than two. However, with origami construction we
will show that it is possible to construct the cube roots of a polynomial. Hatori Koshiro
method for solving for cubic equations of the form x
3
+ ox
2
+ bx +c using origami is
quite elegant and relies on using two parabolas to solve the equation. Let us imagine that
for a moment that the real axis is the x-axis and the imaginary axis is the y-axis. Then in
his construction Koshiro first constructs the point p
1
= (o, 1) and p
2
= (c, b) , and we
also construct the lines L
1
and L
2
by defining L
1
as equal to y = -1, and L
2
as x = -c.
We then use origami axiom (O6) and apply it to p
1
, L
1
and L
2
and thus we obtain a new
line denoted as L
3
. This line is denoted by y = mx + b where mis a solution to the
original cubic equation (Koshiro, 2010).

5.2 Solving the Classical Problem of Trisecting Any Angle
One of the most famous problems of Greek mathematics is that of trisecting any
angle using Euclidean construction methods. It is a well-known fact among
mathematician that this is an impossible task since it requires us to be able to construct
the cube roots of an equation with just the compass and straightedge. However now that
we have shown that our set of origami constructible numbers includes cube roots we
should be able to trisect any angle by solving the equation x
3
+ Stx
2
- Sx - t = u
22
where t =
1
tan0
and x = tan
0
3
-
n
2
. For this construction we will refer to Thomas Hulls
method and show his step by step folding process for trisecting an angle.

Step 1: Starting at the corner
of the paper fold any triangle
with hypotenuse l
1
.
Step 2: Fold any horizontal line
l
2
with a height of h.


Step 3: Fold the paper along l
2
and then fold over one more time (like rolling a burrito),
then unfold the entire sheet back to the plane. You should now have lines l
1
, l
2
, onJ l
3
.



Step 4: Mark a point d in the bottom corner where the intitial fold was made, and then
mark point b on l
3
at the edge of the paper on the same side as d.
l
1
l
2
l
1

l
1

l
1

l
1

l
1

l
2

l
2

l
2
l
2
l
3
l
1

l
1

l
1

l
2
l
2
l
2

l
3
l
3
l
3
B
D
23
Step 5: Now fold the paper so that d lies on line l
2
and b lies on l
1
.
Step 6: Unfold to starting position.
Step 7: Fold point B on top of point D.
You have now successfully trisected an
angle (Hull, 1996).

6.0 CONCLUSI ON
We have shown that origami mathematics is a complete, independent, and well
defined axiomatic system. We have also shown that our origami postulates can be
replaced by Euclidean postulates and vice versa. This shows that both systems share
certain properties. We defined the binary operations of addition, negation, and
multiplication on our origami system, and also showed that we can construct the inverse
as well, thus defining our set of origami constructible numbers as a subfield of the
complex numbers. It is important to note that the Euclidean constructible number are a
subset of the Reals, and thus the reason that we cannot construct the solution to cubic
equations using compass and ruler. However, as we have seen we can in-fact use our
origami solve for both quadratic and cubic equations, which leads us to solving the
problem of trisecting any angle. As our technological knowledge increases, we may
someday find the solutions to technical problems in the fields of physics, astronomy, and
medicine folded away in our mathematics of origami.




24
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